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iii^ SCIENCE Fj 



"VT*| 



SsisTr; ” 




MAIL 

OROEA 


URGES! 


MOST SENSATIONAL VALUES 

ti- yfntiMe' 

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0, « -- ”p C 1 

portion oompan’" i - p^gd todays. 

" 

"'” ?r and »„ t«id 

peeP^n® information 

,nnt i« ®“'- ® ’lo" ’■’^"’ 


INTERN AT lONAL C OR RESPON DEN CF. SCHOOLS 


••The Universal University BOX 2126.F, SCRANTON, PBNNA. 

Without cost or obligation, please send me a copy of your booklet, “Who Wins 
and Why,” and full particulars about the subject before wbidi I have marked X: 


Q Arcbitaei 

S ArcbiteetonU Draftamaa 
BoUding Satimtinc 
□ Wood Minwarttog 
O Contraetor and Baildar 
□ ^uctunJ Prmftamao 
□ Structural Engfaieer 

B lDvaotisg and Pateatioc 
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B Bo afo cM Manacameskt 
Office Manacemant 
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§ Traffic Management 
A^ontaotgr 
Ooev Aoeoontaat 


NamA,^ 


TECHNICAL AND INDUSTRIAL COURSES 


O Telegrapli Engineer □ Piozablng □ Steam Fftiing 

' O Heatiac □ Veatflatioa 

□ Sheet Metal Worker 

g Steam Engineer 

Steam Electric E n gin e m 
Cl Civti Engineer 
D Surreyiog and Mapping 
□ R^rigeration 
□ R. R. LoeomotiTes 
□ R. R. Section Foreman 
O B. R. Bridge and Buildinc 
Foreman 

BUSINESS TRAINING COURSES 


O Telephone Work 

□ Meehanioal Engineer 

□ Mechanical Draftsman 

□ Machinist □ To^maksr 
P Ftatteramaker 
P Heat Treatment of Metals 

□ Bridge Engineer 
P Bridge and Buflding Foreman 
P Gas Enginea □ Dieeel Engines 


□ Air Btakea D S. R. SignalBiM 
P HighwaTwEngineering 

□ Chemktigr P Pharmaear 

g Coal Mimng Engineer 

NavigatioB p Air CondHfcmiiic 
P Boilermaker 
□ Teitile Overseer or Supt. 
j Cotton Manufacturing 


3 Aviation Enaioi 
3 Automobile Meohanie 


P Woolen Manufacturira 
□ Apiculture □ Fruit Gi 


O C. P. Accountant 

□ BookkeepiiuE 
Q Secretarial Work 

□ Spanieb □ Freo^ 
P Salesmaneh^ 

□ Adrertiiing 


□ Service Station Saleetnaneh^ 

O first Year College 
O Busineee CorroBiKmdenee 
P Lettering Show Cards □ Signs 
O Stenography and Typing 

Civil Sttvioe □ Mail Carrier 


□ Poultry Farming 

□ Marine Engineer 

P Raflway Mail Clerk 

□ Grade School Subjeetg 
P High School Subiecta 

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O Illustrating 

□ Cartoonlac 


rowing 
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.Address^ 


„.3tate.., 


^Occupation 


It rou reside in Oenada, eeud Me eeupen te the MenuMottal Oerteepondenee Sokoolt Oeeadiam, limited, Uimtreat, Omadd 


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1 




Amazing Stories 

Science Fiction 

Vol. 8 MARCH, 1934 No. 11 


CONTENTS 


Editorial— Progress in Material Economy in the Future 

T. O’Conor Shane, Ph.D. 

Triplanetary Edward E. Smith, Ph.D. 

(Serial in Four Parts — Part III) 

Peril Among the Drivers., Bob Olsen 

Terror Out of Space H. H overstock Hill 

(Serial in Four Parts — Part II) 

The Man Who Stopped the Earth., Henry J. Kostkos 

What Do You Know? 

(Science Questionnaire) 

A Job of Blending Victor Endersby 

The Corona of the Sun 

Ms, Found in a Bottle Edgar Allan Poe 

Tliscussions . ,.•••* • • 

Our Cover 


9 

13 

36 

84 

120 

123 

124 
126 
127 
134 


depicts a scene from the story entitled “Triplanetary,” 
by Dr. E. E. Smith; drawn by Morey. 


Published Monthly by 
TECK PUBLICATIONS. INC. 

4600 Diversey Avenue, Chicago, III. 

Executive and Editorial Offices; 222 West 39tb Street, New York, N. Y. 

Lte Bllmaker, Pret. ant! Treat. Abner Germena, See'f 

Werrea P. Jeffery. Viee-Pree. Hustoo D. Crippaa, Viee*Pree* 

Copyright, 1934, by Took Publications, Inc,, tn United States and Canada, Registered in U. $, Pat. 
Office. All rights reserved. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 8, 1933, at the postoffice at Chicago, 
Illinois, under the Act of March 3. 1879. 25c a copy, $2.50 a year. $3.00 in Canada. $3.50 in foreign 
countries. Subscribers are notiffeo that change of address must reach os ffve weeks in adyance of 

the next date of issue. 


2 




HUNDREDS Have ALREADY Won Big Cash Rewards 

T WON Ifi wON1[I WONI/TvWN]! I won]/ I WONlf I WON' 
*5,000® S4740?s H705® P47002?/ *4565® fnoo 

RNMA W htlU.i^n NttOWAMy Lf‘ **^4TRom»orc. / \WtveM »S>CH \ j 


$ 5 ^ 000 ®-® $4740 

AKMA ^AddBSOH'N^ ^ W 

^ rt. nFraara-Mi 




CAtWMCR 


D. eeeMeR~Mir.H. 


Now-100 MOR E Cash Prices Bein^ Qiven Aivay 

Would YOU TOO, like to t : 

Hln^lSOO^ 


or Bnick Sedan & $1,000.00? 

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$2,500.00 in real Cash? Here’s your oppor- 
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body can share in these cash rewards. Wouldn’t 
you, too, like to vw a brand new Buick Sedan and 
$1,000.00 (or $2,500.00 all cash)? 

Can YOU Find 4 Dogs 

in ncture at lUght? 

Some are upside down. Some ndewise. Can you 
find 4 dogs? Mark the dogs you find, clip picture and 
mail quick;^ Hundreda of people have won thousands of 
dollars in cash inwards in other advertising campaigns con- 
ducted by men in this big compimy* Above are a few. Now 
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like a dream to you, but I’U be happy to send you the $2a500 
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Not a Penny 

of Tour Money Needed 

AU these prizes are being given outright to van- 
ners. Hot a penny of your money needed to buy 

- Nor a lottery. No luck or alall needed. Nothiog 


$ 10,00000 reward 



ALL PRIZE MONEY 
NOW IN BANK 

AU the thousands of dollars to pay 
every prize winner is now in the big, 
strong Bankers Trust Co. bank in 
Des Moines. 


to write, imagine the joy of receiving a letter from me with 
$2,500.00 in it! Oh,boy, whatathriUl Hurry — get started 
quick by finding 4 dogs. Nothing foe you to lose. 

Yon Are SU^ to Win 

a Cash Reward if You Do as I Ask 
You are absolutely GUARANTEED to am a 
cash reward if you t^e an active part. But hurryl 
First active, first rewarded I Think of all the happiness 
$2,500.00 can bring you! We are reliablel I invite you to 
look us up throu^ any credit agency, any bank m Dm 
M oines, any business hen^ railroad, express company, maga* 
sine, newspaper. • • . We are weU known national advertisers. 

We will pay $10,000.00 
forfeit to any worthy 
charity if anyone can 
prove that we do not really give away aU these thousands of 
dollars in prizes^ or that all this prise money is not in the 


bank waiting to 
promptly pay ev- 
ery prise winner — 
or that we wiU not 
fulfill every guar- 
antee we make. 

We are a big, re- 
^>on8ible firm. 

$1,000.00 EXTRA 

VOR PROMPTNESS 

I mil pay First Grand Prize winner $1,000.00 extra 
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$2,500.00 if all cub i* preferred). Do you want it? Then 
burry. Not only on. persoo, but huadtedm will win caib 
raraids. In cue of tie. duplicate prize, will be given. 

MAIL COUPON QUICK 

Just mark the dogs you find, clip picture and mail 
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poM-card bow many dog, you find. Don’t lend a cent. For 
replsring I will tell you how you may share in thousands of 
dollars in SXTRA_M^_re^^^^d^^^^,500.^^too._4^^ 
•wer today. 

Tell me 
which you 
desire to 
win— $2,500 
all cash or 
Buick and 
$ 1 , 000 . 00 ? 

Merrold 
Johnson, 

Rise Mgr., 

Dept. 420, 

Des Moines 

Iowa 


I Merrold Johnson, Prise MaaRser, 

I Dept. 420, Des Moines. lowm. 

N I have found 4 huntinx doga in your oietorD and I 
B nm anxious to win; 


■ Nams.. 


!Clty 7. State. 


(Mark in aquare which yoo w<^d prefer to win.) 
□ Buick and $1,000.00. orQ $2,COO.OO All Cash; 


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3 





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A RAILWAY 

RAFFIC INSPECTOR 



(WRITE 

NOW 


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4 


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p f e m 1 a m 
metbed to ia* 
t r o d a c o 


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ttores in 0, S. suy o box from 


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tidkats. metal slide and 
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famous WH 


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BOYSI REPEATING RIFLE GIVEN 
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ud . 
ilddntt 1 


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Hama , .■ 1, 1.. ■ 




Ho.. 




( Wat laat Pima Id blpclts below) . Dote^ 


I I I I 


Tty WUsoB's Hooey Horehoimd BleaUiol Chough Drops, Se Ererywhere 


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5 


MAIL THIS NOW 


NG 3^4 

"PSyCHIANA" 

Moscow, Idaho 

Please send me FREE ycrar 6,000 word 
treatise in which Dr. Robinson explains 
bow he learned to commune with the Living 
God, using this mighty power for health, 
happiness, and success. 


Name. 

Street. 


City. 


State. 


mpon i 

Psycbiana, Moscow, Ida. 


FREE 


FREE 


"PSYCHIANA" 

A new and revo- 
lutionary religious 
teaching based en- 
tirely on the mis- 
understood sayings 
of the Galilean Car- 
penter, and de- 
signed to show how 
to find and use 
the same identical 
power that He used. 


"MAN CAN 
TALK WITH 
GOD 

noted psychologist 

"PSYCHIANA" 

Believes and Teaches as Follows: 


FIRST — That there is no such thing as a “subconscious mind.” 

SECOND — That there is, in this universe, a FAR MORE POTENT and 
DYNAMIC POWER, the manifestations of which have been errone- 
ously credited to some other supposed power called the “subconscious 
mind.” 

THIRD— That this INVISIBLE, DYNAMIC Power is THE VERY SAME 
POWER that JESUS USED when He staggered the nations by His 
so-called “miracles,” and by raising the dead. 

FOURTH— That Jesus had NO MONOPOLY on this Power. 

FIFTH — That it is possible for EVERY NORMAL human being tmder- 
standing spiritual law as He understood it, TO DUPLICATE EVERY 
WORK THAT THIS CARPENTER OF GALILEE EVER DID. 
When He said: “The things that I do shall YE DO ALSO”— He meant 
KXACTLY WHAT HK SAID. 

SIXTH— That this dynamic Power’ is NOT TO BE FOUND “within,” but 
has its source in a far different direction. 

SEVENTH— THAT THE WORDS OF THIS GALILEAN CARPENTER 
WENT A THOUSAND MILES OVER THE HEADS OF HIS 
HEARERS 2,000 YEARS AGO, AND ARE STILL A THOUSAND 
MILES OVER THE HEADS OF THOSE WHO PROFESS TO 
FOLLOW HIM TODAY. 

EIGHTH— That this same MIGHTY, INVISIBLE, PULSATING, 
THROBBING POWER can be used by anyone— AT ANY HOUR OF 
THE DAY OR NIGHT and without such methods as “going into a 
silence” or “gaaing at bright objects,” etc. 

NINTH — That when once understood and correctly used, this mighty 
Power is ABUNDANTLY ABLE, AND NEVER FAILS TO GIVE 
HEALTH, HAPPINESS and OVERWHELMING SUCCESS in 
whatever proper line it may be desired. 

considered by many to be one of the keenest 
psychological minds this country has ever pro- 
duced, and one of the most earnest, intense searchers into the spiritual realm, believes, after years of 
experimentation and research, that there is in this world today, an UNSEEN power or force, so 
dynamic in itself, that all other powers or forces FADE INTO INSIGNIFICANCE BESIDE IT. 
He believes that this power or force is THE VERY SAME POWER THAT JESUS USED. He 
believes further that the entire world, including the present church stt*ucture, MISSED IN ITS 
ENTIRETY the message that He came to bring. He believes that 

The world is on the verge of the most stupendous spiritual upheaval it has ever experienced. 



OR. FRANK B ROBINSON 

Founder of ‘‘Psychi- 
ana’* and author of 
•‘The God Nobody 
Knows.” 


DR. FRANK ROBINSON 


Every reader of this magazine is cordially invited to write “PS'VCHTANA” for more details of this revolutionary 
teaching which might verv easily be discussed the ENTIRE WORLD AROUND. Dr. Kobinsoo will tell you some* 
thing of his years of searcti for the truth as he KNEW it must exist, and will give you a few facts connected with 
the founding of “PSYCHIANA.” NO OBLIGATIONS WHATSOEVER. Sign your name and address above. 


Copyrl^t 1933, Dr. Vrank B, Boblnsoo 


6 


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7 






WANTED.MEsvmn 

TEA.>^COFFEE ROUTES 

makeupto uweek 


NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED— I GIVE YOU 
WHAT LITTLE TRAINING NECESSARY- 
NO RED TAPE— PAY STARTS AT ONCE 


Into your personal affairs when you join 
me. You and 1 can ;et tcwether on this 
businMi deal without all tbaL If you bare 
a part time job. tbiis Is your chance for per- 
manent work with no danger ot being fired. 
You don’t eren need to devote all of your 
tim*. to this work and you are tlirough 
punching a time-clock once you start wUb 
me in dead earnest. 


Read This Article Carefully 

Hundreds of deserving men 
should read this announcement. 
Many^ who have been beset with 
financial distres.s will find prompt 
and permanent relief from their 
money worries. 



GO TO WORK AT ONCE FACTORY FRESH FOODS 


FOR YEAR ’ROUND 
INCOME 

Think how wonderful it is to have 
a nice weekly income just from call- 
ing upon and supplying people with 
daily necessities. Plenty of money to 
pay your nagging bills — buy clothing 
—'pay off the mortgage — buy your- 
self a home — put money in the bank— 
or anything else your heart desires. 

TEA AND COFFEE 
ROUTES PAY BEST 

Bmybody knows tbero Is nothing like 
good weekly route for a fine, steady 
income. Our routes 
pay far better than 
most because we supply 
the things people must 
use in order to lire. 
You simply take care 
of customers’ orders 
on the route in your 
I locality. Established 
route belongs to 
you. You collect 
all the cash we 
* take in and keep 
a big share ot It 
just for deliver- 
ing the goods and 
taking care of 
the business. I’ll 
furnish yon with 
hundreds of fine 
premiums to give away 
*1 tea and coffee and other 
fine food products. Hundreds waiting to 
he served in many localities. Pay begins 
at once where you call on trade already 
aatablished. 


YOUR OWN FOOD PROD- 
UCTS AT WHOLE- 
SALE PRICES 

\SlieD I send you instructions for making 
money on my new neighborhood Tea and 
Coffee ttoate plan 1 also give you rock-bot- 
tom v^olesale prices on your own groceries. 
Thb Is in addition to your regular pay. ao 
yoa make big money In cash and save big 
aonay oa ftaa things you osa in your own 


My plan provides immediate cash earnings 
for those who need money. I want to give 
employment to a lot more people at once. 
You start work right in your own locality 
light near where you live. Iliere is nothing 
hard or difficult about this job. There's no 
red tape connected with lu You don’t have 
a lot of expensive equipment to buy. 

EXPERIENCE OR TRAIN- 
ING UNNECESSARY 

I spent years of time and a fortune In 
money perfecting business plans that I give 
you the vefy first day you start. Part of 
your job will be to distribute some aflvertis- 
Ing matter and sample packages. You will 
deliver all the goods, collect the money, and 
keep a big share of it as your pay. This 
provides you with Immediate cash to relieve 
urgent money worries. 

NO LIMIT TO MY OFFER 

You have probably never worked for a boss 
who didn't want to limit the pay you got 
Saturday night. You have dreamed of 
a chance to make $50.00, $60.00 
even $75.00 in a 
week. That’s Just 
the kind of un- 
limited offer 1 am 
making. If you 
are honest, con- 
scientious. and 
willing to listen 
to reason I won’t 
put any limit oa 
your earnings. 

I’ll explain all 
this to you just 
as soMk at you 
send me your 



booklet 1 send 



FOBD 8£I>AH FtTEKXSHKD 
TBEE TO PRODXrOERS AS AN 
EXTRA BONUS 
NOT A CONTEST OR A PRIZE 


I’M NOT AFTER 
YOUR MONEY 

Don't send me a cent — don’t want 
your money — I need your help. First 
I want an <vportunlty to tell you 


My tea and coffee and 
other fbod products are 
factory fresh, tested and 
approved by the Ameri- 
can Testing Institute, 
the very highest knotro 
quality at popular 
prices. It's no wonder 
people insist on having 
my brand In preference 
to any other. I tell you 
all about this In the free 
you. 


DON’T SEND MONEY 
—JUST YOUR NAME 

, Don’t confuse this' with anything you have 
ever read before — I don't need your money 
— 1 need your help. Send me your name 
10 I can la)' the facts before you. Then 
you can de<’idc if 
the pay Is satis- 
factory. I furnish 
everything, includ- 
ing a new Ford 
Sedan to prcKltic- 
ers. Don’t expect 
me to wait in- 
definitely to hear 
from yot4 If you 
act promptly it 
win be a strong 
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coupon or penny 
postcard today for 
FBBEDETAiUi. 

THINGS TO DO 



A* 1. Mail Coupon 
2. Read Facts 


■■I 3. Start to work for me 


iTEA^-'^^COFFEE ROUTE COUPON 




truth about how 
to make up to 
$45.00 a week in 
pleasant, conge- 
nial work, ril lay 
all the facts be- 
fore you. and you 
be the Judge if 
the pay is satis- 
factory. I’ll take 
all the chances — 
1 doa't want you 
to take any. You 
may be just the 
man I’m seeking. 
I am not going 
to ask you a lot 
of embarrassing 
questtoQS or pry 


m 


ALBERT MILLS. Route Mgr. 

4971 Monmouth Ave.. Cifieinnatl. Ohio. 

Send me full particulars of "Home Owned” I I 

Tea and Coffee Route plan and ju.<;t how I can I I 

get Started on a basis of up to $45.00 a we^ at I | 

once. 'Xhis Is without obligatlim to me. | 

NAME 

ADDRESS 

(Hease or Writ* Plalniy) 


Please -mention Newsstand Fiction Unit when answering advertisements 




9 


Poes 


THE 

MAGAZINE 





VOLUME 

8 

W m SCIENCE FICTION 

March, 1934 

No. 11 


T. O’GONOR SLOANE, Ph.D., Editor 

Editorial and General Offices: 222 West 39th Street, New York, N. Y. 


Extravagant Fiction Today Cold Fact Tomorrow 


Progress in Material Economy 
in the Future 

By T. O’Conor Sloane, Ph.D. 


T here is a very unjust appraisal 
that is often bestowed on work in 
pure science, which seems to the 
criticizing spirit to be quite useless. It 
is expressed in the query so often ap- 
plied to an investigator’s work — “What 
is the use?” If the operation of scien- 
tific investigators was limited to sub- 
jects that on their face bore the marks 
of usefulness, and if all purely theo- 
retical subjects were rejected as topics 
unworthy of study, the world would 
suffer in its progress and would be poor 
to-day. 

Early in the last century it was dis- 
covered that a magnetized steel needle, 
poised upon a pointed support at its cen- 
ter, so as to be free to rotate in a hori- 
zontal plane, would be affected and caused 
to turn on its support, if a wire carrying 


a current of electricity were brought near 
it and more or less in parallel with it. 
This seems to be a very insignificant 
phenomenon, but it showed the action of 
force through space and the scientific 
world of those days was enlightened 
enough to realize the wonder of it. 
Faraday followed it up and by further 
developments made the compass needle 
do remarkable things without any ma- 
terial contact with the wire carrying the 
current which moved it. 

Magnetism had been known for gen- 
erations. The attraction exercised by a 
bit of amber on bits of straw, when the 
amber liad been rubbed by an animal 
fabric, such as silk or woolen cloth, was 
a story of antiquity. When the new 
science of electricity was recognized, its 
name was taken from the Greek word for 


10 


AMAZING STORIES 


amber, elektron. But what did it all 
amount to? What was the use of such 
trivial experiments? 

But fortunately the students of the 
budding science did not stop to think 
about the usefulness of following up the 
experiments of Amperes and Faraday. 
The experiments were utterly trivial in 
what they did, and in what they showed 
to the observer, but what they were to 
lead up to, and what were the develop- 
ments impending in the next eight or ten 
decades were far from trivial. We now 
take the developments for granted. We 
do not trouble ourselves to wonder at 
them — but what seemed a silly affair to 
the many practical, utilitarian minds of 
the first decades of the last century has 
completely revolutionized human indus- 
try. Fortunately all the minds were not 
utilitarian; progress went on in spite of 
the discouraging spirit we speak of. The 
changes brought about by what so many 
must have thought was a silly experiment, 
and all these developments occurring dur- 
ing the last seventy-five years, exceed the 
progress of the preceding centuries of 
the reign of mankind on earth. 

Place yourself in imagination in a great 
power plant by the side of a giant 
dynamo. It is a huge affair. The field 
is one of the most massive metallic con- 
structions made by man. Its weight may 
be expressed in tons. The armature con- 
tains a massive core, of thin iron sheets 
and is wound with a great mass of copper 
wire. The rotor, it may be the armature, 
is kept turning at great speed and all is 
so perfectly balanced and runs so quietly 
that realization of all that is going on is 
not easy. 

What is going on is this : following out 
Ampere’s and Faraday’s “trivial” experi- 
ments, thousands of horsepower are flow- 
ing out of the dynamo— lighting innum- 
erable lamps of high candle power. No 
one is content as we were a few decades 
ago to read by the light of one candle, a 


fifty candle power electric light is wanted 
now. Or the horsepower may be used to 
drive trains of cars, loaded up to “stand- 
ing room only” and ten or more heavy 
cars going over hundreds of miles at sixty 
miles an hour as their ordinary rate of 
speed. Machinery of all kinds may be 
driven by our dynamo from the house- 
wife’s sewing machine to a ten thousand 
horsepower motor. 

Now we see the futility of the question 
“What is the use?” Place alongside the 
great machine a cell of a wet battery, per- 
haps of a quart or a half quart size, con- 
nect its poles with two or three feet of 
wire and with a pocket compass observe 
the effect of the current on the poised 
needle. Your experiment seems utterly 
insignificant and one which could never 
have been of serious interest. The com- 
pass needle is caused to move without 
contact with the battery or its wire. Yet 
it is on that experiment, carried out in 
its first sequences by Faraday, that the 
dynamo and the world of electric power 
development is based. The little battery 
and pocket compass represent what is 
going on in the giant dynamo. The con- 
trast is impressive. 

A striking effect and a permanent one 
has been produced on the human mind by 
the development of great and impressive 
things from apparently insignificant ex- 
periments and small beginnings. 

People are now ready to believe that 
anything, no matter how extraordinary 
and unprecedented, may come to pass and 
may be done by man. One of our cor- 
respondents seemed indignant over the 
fact that we doubted the possibility of 
trips to the moon. Professor Simon 
Newcomb was alluded to as pronouncing 
flight in heavier-than-air machines to be 
an impossibility and something never to 
be accomplished by man. Perhaps it is 
the wiser course to avoid the responsibil- 
ity of affirming things to be impossible. 
Man has done so much that there is no 


PROGRESS m MATERIAL ECONOMY 


11 


telling what the next hundred years may 
bring about. 

Recently a number of experiments, 
some quite successful, have been carried 
out in the line of rocket propulsion. Quite 
wonderful results have been attained 
with this system. Its interest in great 
part lies in the fact, that as far as we 
know, only a reaction system, such as 
rocket propulsion, could operate in the 
vacuum of space. This is offset by the 
fact that in space where there is prac- 
tically no resistance to motion of the air- 
plane, on account of the absence of air, 
a very slight power, almost infinitesimal, 
would actuate and drive it. Its wings 
would be useless, as would its propeller 
be if it had one. So in the rocket motor 
we have one first element of propulsion 
in a vacuum, supplemented by the fact 
that in a vacuum very small power would 
be needed for driving the plane, and 
little power to overcome the feeble gravi- 
tation in space. 

Another line of experimentation at- 
tacks the atom and hope has been ex- 
pressed that power may be derived from 
its breaking-up. But high authorities 
deny the possibility of the atom ever 
giving us power, economically at least. 
Much work is being done on it. It is an 
interesting thought that, as in Ampere’s 
and Faraday’s primitive work, lay the 
germ of the great dynamo of to-day, so 
from the apparently useless work of the 
leading experiments of our time, the little 
may develop into the great. 

There has been a great advance in 
economy of light production. The candle 
and lamp and the old batswing and fish- 
tail gas burners, as they were called in 
the technical nomenclature of the day, 
were supplanted by the incandescent 
Welsbach burner of greatly increased 
economy. In electric lighting, the carbon 
filament was replaced by the tungsten fila- 
ment of three fold its economy. The 
steam engine as a prime motor is five or 


ten times more economical in coal con- 
sumption than were its predecessors, and 
some day we may see the internal com- 
bustion motor, with cheaper fuel than it 
now requires, displace the crude steam- 
engine. Even the automobile is very un- 
economical and suggests the basis for 
great advance. Gasoline is expensive ; to 
take care of lubrication the cylinders are 
cooled in the very face of economy, re- 
ducing the power based on the heat of 
combustion. Everywhere there seems to 
be room for endless economy if the 
change would only come. 

One curious feature is that as economy 
of production increases, man wants more 
and more. So in the personal element is 
to be seen a great producer of waste and 
resistant of economy — there is a sort of 
race between the popular demand for 
more power and the engineer’s efforts to 
keep the cost down. 

The original condensing steam engine 
operated by injecting a jet of water into 
the interior of the cylinder after the pis- 
ton had completed its power stroke. This 
jet condensed the steam into water and 
the piston went back to the other end of 
the cylinder. The cold water not only 
condensed the steam, but lowered the tem- 
perature of the metal sides of the cylinder 
and of the piston, so that when the time 
for the next power stroke came, the steam 
had to warm the metal, as well as to drive 
the piston through its stroke. This was 
very poor practise, because the heating of 
the cylinder and piston for every stroke 
expended a quantity of non-productive 
heat. 

Then Watt made his great invention. 
A separate vessel was connected to the 
cylinder. This filled with steam as the 
piston moved through its work stroke, 
and the steam was constantly being con- 
densed. A jet of water was driven into 
the subsidiary vessel, and the steam was 
instantly condensed without cooling the 
engine cylinder. The water as it collected 


12 


AMAZING STORIES 


from the condenseci steam was pumped 
out of this vessel. Watt’s invention was a 
most important one, as it kept the work- 
ing cylinder hot. 

In the modern gasoline and gas engines 
there is a sort of reversal from the 
modern condensing steam engine. The 
temperature in the cylinder is very high — 
injecting cold water would affect the com- 
bustion which is the source of its power 
and would interfere with the lubrication. 
So the cylinders are kept cool by outside 
refrigeration ; it may be done by circulat- 
ing water or it may be by air driven 
through jackets surrounding them. But 
this is precisely what cuts down efficiency. 
It reduces the power to a great extent, 
exactly as the internal water jet did in the 
earlier steam engines, but the wasteful 
cooling has to be in order to carry out 
the lubrication. As the cylinder of the in- 
ternal combustion engine is directly 
cooled, its cycle of operation to that ex- 
tent brings it nearer to the old condensing 
engine of the days before Watts. The 
cooling of the cylinders from considera- 
tions of economical production of power 
is fundamentally wrong. But it has to be 
done. Thus in the internal combustion en- 
gine such as the gas engine, we have a 
radically imperfect heat engine. Who will 


be the Watts of this engine and avoid its 
glaring uneconomical operation due to the 
cooling of the cylinder? 

We would be greatly delighted if we all 
knew that the modern electric lamp with 
tungsten wire filament is nearly four 
times as efficient as the carbon filament 
lamp was. And it is this. But such may 
fairly be designated as a small advance. 
Light is really extremely cheap — it costs 
an approximation to nothing, but when 
produced by heat, there is a very large 
amount of power wasted in producing 
useless obscure heat radiations, for light 
is a very small part of the energy ex- 
pended by a luminary. The figures of the 
pressure of light are inconceivably small. 
Jeans put it that a strong enough ray of 
light could throw a man down. But he 
goes on to state that a fifty horse-power 
search light, operating for a century, 
would give a push of about a twentieth of 
an ounce. 

There is so much to be done in the way 
of improving the economy of Our pro- 
cesses that no feelings of criticism should 
be expended on the experimenters and 
students in the realm of the little things 
of mechanics. The results may be great, 
and there is plenty of room ahead for 
their attainment. 


13 



By EDWARD E. SMITH, Ph.D. 


PART III 

We are giving the third, and next to the last, installment of Dr. Smith’s 
story. It bears all the marks of the writings of this author, who in his 
narration has kept thoroughly up to his standard. He has made himself a 
favorite with our readers and we are very glad to give so serious a production 

in our columns. 

Illustrated by MOREY 


What Has Gone Before: 

ONWAY COSTIGAN, a Sector 'Chief of 
the Secret Service of Triplanetary— the 
government of the allied planets earth, 
Mars and Venus — is serving as First Officer 
of the interplanetary liner “Hyperion,” _ The 
liner is attacked and crippled by an invisible 
ship, and is towed to the supposed pirates’ base, 
an invisible planetoid. Roger, the owner and 
ruler of the structure, is a man of mystery. 

Costigan, Captain Bradley of the “Hyperion” 
and Clio Marsden, Costigan’s sweetheart, escape 
from the planetoid by the use of ultra-phones 
— Secret Service instruments whose use sets 
up no vibrations in the ether — only to be drawn 
through a peculiarly opaque fog of crimsoq 
energy into an outlandish space-ship. They 
are conscious, but are rendered helpless by a 
temporary paralysis of all voluntary muscles. 
Costigan has been in touch with Virgil Samms, 
the Chief of the Secret Service, and most of 
the Peace Fleet of Triplanetary has been 
ordered to concentrate upon the supposed loca- 
tion of the planetoid. 

Aboard the “Chicago,” one of the vessels of 
the fleet, is Lyman Cleveland, the beam expert, 
who is also a Secret Service operative. He 
locates the planetoid and the fleet attacks. 
The “Chicago” is ordered to withdraw from 
the action, so that Cleveland may take ultra- 
photographs of everything that happens- In 
the ensuing battle the robot-manned vessejs 
of the "pirates” are defeated. The fleet is 
about to attack the planetoid when both fleet 
and planetoid are assailed by the same red 
radiance into which Costigan and bis com- 
panions had been drawn. 

The strangers have come from Nevia, the 
one planet of a sun many light-years distent 
from our own. Its atmosphere is red, its sur- 
face is almost entirely water. The Nevians 
are four-legged, four-armed, highly intelligent 
amphibians. They live in cities built upon the 
few islands and in shallow water; and are 
carrying on an endless war of mutual extermi- 


nation with the fishes of the greeter deeps. 

The Nevians are able to transform iron into 
a viscous allotrope, and in that form to use 
its intra-atomic energy. Iron is extremely rare 
upon their planet, however; hence Nerado, a 
Nevian scientist, has designed and built two 
immense, fish-shaped space-cruisers, in one of 
which be sets out to explore the Galetxy in 
quest of iron. He finally finds it— -in the mate- 
rial of ^e fighting ships and planetoid — and 
after taking Costigan, Clio and Bradley aboard 
his vessel as specimens, he converts all the 
iron of the fighting craft into the allotrope and 
stores it in his tanks. Then, after summoning 
the other Nevian space-ship, be returns to 
Nevia. 

Upon arrival there, Nerado is called to the 
aid of a city which is being demolished by the 
fishes. During the battle the three captives 
escape from Nerado in one of bis own life- 
boats and drive toward earth, hoping that the 
Nevian scientist-captain will be so fully occu- 
pied that he will not pursue them. 

The story now turns back to the camera- 
ship “Chicago,” in which Cleveland is record- 
ing the terrific battle in space between Nerado’s 
cruiser upon one side and Triplanetarians and 
pirates” upon the other. 


CHAPTER VII 


The Hill 

HE heavy cruiser “Chicago” 
hung motionless in space, 
thousands of miles distant 
from the warring fleets of 
space-ships so viciously at- 
tacking and so stubbornly defending 
the planetoid of the enemy. In the cap- 





Its atmosphere was withdrawn, the outer door opened, and he glanced 
across a bare hundred feet of space at the rockeUplane which, keel ports 
fiercely aflame, was braking her terrific speed to match the slower pace of 

the gigantic ship of war. 


TRIPLANETARY 


15 


tain’s sanctum Lyman Cleveland 
crouched tensely above his ultra-cameras, 
his sensitive fingers touching lightly their 
micrometric dials. His body was rigid, 
his face was set and drawn. Only his 
eyes moved; flashing back and forth be- 
tween the observation plates and smooth- 
ly-running rolls which were feeding into 
the cameras the hardened steel tapes 
upon which were being magnetically re- 
corded the frightful scenes of carnage 
and destruction there revealed. 

Silent and bitterly absorbed, though 
surrounded by staring officers, whose fer- 
vent, almost unconscious cursing was 
prayerful in its intensity, the visiray ex- 
pert kept his ultra-instruments upon that 
awful struggle to its dire conclusion. 
Flawlessly those instruments noted every 
detail of the destruction of Roger’s 
fleet, of the transformation of the armada 
of Triplanetary into an unknown fluid, 
and finally of the dissolution of the gi- 
gantic planetoid itself. Then furiously 
Qcveland drove hjs beams against the 
crimsonly opaque obscurity into which 
the peculiar, viscous stream of substance 
was disappearing. Time after time be 
applied his every watt of power, with no 
result. A vast volume of space, roughly 
elHpsodial in shape, was closed to him 
by forces entirely beyond his experience 
or comprehension. But suddenly, while 
his rays were still trying to pierce that 
impenetrable murk, it disappeared in- 
stantly and, without warning, the illimit- 
able infinity of space once more lay re- 
vealed upon his plates and his beams 
flashed on and on through the void, un- 
impeded. 

“Back to Tellus, sir?” The “Chi- 
cago’s” captain broke the strained si- 
lence. 

“I wouldn’t say so, if I had the 
say.” Cleveland, baffled and frustrate, 
straightened up and shut off his cam- 
eras. “We should report back as soon 
as possible, of course, but there seems 


to be a lot of wreckage out there yet, 
that we can’t photograph in detail at this 
distance. A close study of it might help 
us a lot in understanding what they did 
and how they did it. I’d say that we 
should get close-ups of whatever is left, 
and do it right away, before it gets scat- 
tered all over spare ; but of course I 
can’t give you orders.” 

“You can, though,” the captain made 
surprising answer. “My orders are that 
you are in command of this vessel.” 

“In that case we will proceed at full 
emergency acceleration to investigate 
the wreckage,” Cleveland replied, and 
the cruiser— sole survivor of Triplane- 
tary’s supposedly invincible force— shot 
away with every projector delivering its 
maximum blast. 

As the scene of the disaster was ap- 
proached there was revealed upon the 
plates a confused mass of debris ; a mass 
whose individual units were apparently 
moving at random; yet which was as a 
whole still following the orbit of Roger’s 
planetoid. Space was full of machine 
parts, structural members, furniture, flot- 
sam of all kinds; and everywhere were 
the bodies of men. Some were encased 
in space-suits, and it was to these that 
the rescuers turned first — space-hardened 
veterans though the men of the “Chi- 
cago” were, they did not care even to 
look at the others. Strangely enough, 
however, not one of the floating figures 
spoke or moved, and space-line men were 
hurriedly sent out to investigate. 

“All dead.” Quickly the dread re- 
port came back. “Been dead a long 
time. The armor is all stripped off the 
suits, and the generators and the other 
apparatus are all shot. Something funny 
about it, too — none of them seem to have 
been touched, but the machinery of the 
suits seems to be about half of it 
missing.” 

“I’ve got it all on the spools, sir.” 
Cleveland, his close-up survey of the 


16 


AMAZING STORIES 


wreckage finished, turned to the cap- 
tain. “What they’ve just reported checks 
up with what I’ve photographed every- 
where. I’ve got an idea of what might 
have happened, but it’s so dizzy that 
I’ll have to have a lot of reenforcement 
before I’ll believe it myself. But you 
might have them bring in a few of the 
armored bodies, a couple of those switch- 
boards and panels floating around out 
there, and half a dozen miscellaneous 
pieces of junk— the nearest things they 
get hold of, whatever they happen to 
be.” 

“Then back to Tcllus at maximum?’ 

“Right — back to Tellus, as fast as we 
can possibly go there.” 

W HILE the “Chicago” hurtled 
through space at full power, Cleve- 
land and the ranking officers of the 
vessel grouped themselves about the sal- 
vaged wreckage. F'aniiliar with space- 
wrecks as were they all, none of them 
had ever seen anything like the material 
before them. For every part and instru- 
ment was weirdly and meaninglessly dis- 
integrated. There were no breaks, no 
marks of violence, and yet nothing was 
intact. Bolt-holes stared empty, cores, 
shielding cases and needles had disap- 
peared, the vital parts of every instru- 
ment hung awry, disorganization reigned 
rampant and supreme. 

“I never imagined such a mess,” the 
captain said, after a long and silent 
study of the objects. “If you have any 
theory to cover that, Cleveland, I would 
like to hear it!” 

“I want you to notice something first,” 
the visiray expert replied. “But don’t 
look for what’s there — look for what 
isn’t there.” 

“Well, the armor is gone. So are the 
shielding cases, shafts, spindles, the 
housings and stems . . .” The captain’s 
voice died away as his eyes raced over 
the collection. “Why, everything that 


was made of wood, bakelite, copper, 
aluminum, silver, bronze, or anything 
but steel hasn’t been touched, and every 
bit of steel is gone. But that doesn’t 
make sense — what does it mean?” 

“I don’t know — ^yet,” Cleveland re- 
plied, slowly. “But I’m afraid that 
there’s more, and worse.” He opened 
a space-suit reverently, revealing the 
face; a face calm and peaceful, but ut- 
terly, sickeningly white. Still reverently, 
he made a deep incision in the brawny 
neck, severing the jugular vein, then 
went on, soberly; 

“You never imagined such a thing as 
white blood, either, but it all checks up. 
Someway, somehow, every particle — 
probably every atom — of free or com- 
bined iron in this whole volume of space 
was made off with.” 

“Huh? How come? And above all, 
why?” from the amazed and. staring 
officers. 

“You know as much as I do,” grim- 
ly, ponderingly. “If it were not for the 
fact that there are solid asteroids of iron 
out beyond Mars, I would say that 
somebody wanted iron badly enough to 
wipe out the fleets and the planetoid to 
get it. But anyway, whoever they were, 
they carried etiough power so that our 
armament didn’t bother them at all. 
They simply took the metal they wanted 
and went away with it — so fast that I 
couldn’t trace them with an ultra-beam. 
There’s only one thing plain; but that’s 
so plain that it scares me stiff. This 
whole affair spells intelligence, with a 
capital T,’ and that intelligence is any- 
thing but friendly. As for me I want to 
get Fred Rodebush at work on this 
soon — think I’ll hurry it up a little.” 

TTE stepped over to his ultra-pro- 
A 1 jector and called the Terrestrial 
headquarters of the T. S. S. Samms’ 
face soon appeared upon his screMi. 

“We got it all, "Virgil,” he reported. 


TRIPLANETARY 


17 


“It’s something extraordinary — ^bigger, 
wider, and deeper than any^ of us 
dreamed. It may be urgent, too, so I 
think I had better shoot the pictures in 
on the ultra-wave and save a few days. 
Fred has a telemagneto recorder there 
that he can synchronize with this camera 
outfit easily enough. Right?” 

“Right. Good work, Lyman — tlianks,” 
came back terse approval and apprecia- 
tion, and soon the steel tapes were again 
flashing between the feed-rolls. This 
time, however, their varying magnetic 
charges were modulating an ultra-wave 
so that every detail of that calamitous 
battle of the void was being screened and 
recorded in the innermost private labora- 
tory of the Triplanetary Secret Service. 

Eager though he naturally was to join 
his fellow-scientists, Cleveland did not 
waste his time during the long, but un- 
eventful journey back to earth. There 
was much to study, many improvements 
to be made in his comparatively crude 
first ultra-camera. Then, too, there were 
long conferences with Samms, and par- 
ticularly with Rodebush, the mathe- 
matical physicist, whose was the task of 
solving the riddles of the energies and 
weapons of the Nevians. Thus it did 
not seem long before green Terra grew 
large beneath the fl5dng sphere of the 
‘Chicago’. 

“Going to have to circle at once, aren’t 
you?” Cleveland asked the chief pilot. 
He had been watching that officer closely 
for minutes, admiring the delicacy and 
precision with which the great vessel 
was being maneuvered preliminary to 
entering the earth’s atmosphere. 

“Yes,” the pilot replied. “We had to 
come in in the shortest possible time, 
and that meant a velocity here that we 
can’t check without a spiral. However, 
even at that we saved a lot of time. 
You can save quite a bit more, though, 
by having a rocket-plane come out to 
meet us somewhere around fifteen or 


twenty thousand kilometers, depending 
upon where you want to land. With 
their power-to-mass ratio they can match 
our velocity and still make the drop di- 
rect.” 

“Guess I’ll do that — thanks,” and the 
operative called his chief, only to learn 
that his suggestion had already been 
acted upon. 

“We beat you to it, Lyman,” Samms 
smiled. “The ‘Silver Sliver’ is out there 
now, looping to match your course,” ac- 
celeration, and velocity at twenty-two 
thousand kilometers. You’ll be ready to 
transfer ?” 

“I’ll be ready!” and the Quartermas- 
ter’s ex-clerk went to his quarters and 
packed his dunnage-bag. 

In due time the long, slender body of 
the rocket-plane came into view, creep- 
ing ‘down’ upon the space-ship from 
‘above,’ and Cleveland bade his friends 
good-bye. Donning a space-suit, he sta- 
tioned himself in the starboard airlock. 
Its atmosphere was withdrawn, the outer 
door opened, and he glanced across a 
bare hundred feet of space at the rocket- 
plane which, keel ports fiercely aflame, 
was braking her terrific speed to match 
the slower pace of the gigantic ship of 
war. Shaped like a toothpick, needle- 
pointed fore and aft, with ultra-stubby 
wings and vanes, with flush-set rocket 
ports everywhere, built of a lustrous sil- 
very alloy of noble and almost infusible 
metals — such was the private speedboat 
of the chief of the T. S. S. The fast- 
est thing known, whether in planetary.^ 
air, the stratosphere, or the vacuus depth 
of interplanetary space, her first flashing 
trial spins had won her the nickname of 
the ‘Silver Sliver.’ She had had a 
more formal name, but that title had 
long since been buried in the Depart- 
mental files. 

Lower and slower dropped the ‘Sil- 
ver Sliver,’ her rockets flaming even 
brighter, until her slender length lay 


18 


AMAZING STORIES 


level with the airlock door. Then her 
blasting discharges subsided to the power 
necessary to match exactly the "Chi- 
cago’s” deceleration. 

“Ready to cut, ‘Chicago!’ Give me a 
three-second call I” snapped from the 
pilot room of the ‘Sliver’. 

“Ready to cut!” the pilot of the ‘Chi- 
cago’ replied. Seconds! Three! Two! 
One! CUT!” 

At the last word the power of both 
vessels was instantly cut off and every- 
thing in them became weightless. In the 
tiny airlock of the slender craft crouched 
a space-line man with coiled cable in 
readiness, but he was not needed. As 
the flaring exhausts ceased Cleveland 
swung out his heavy bag and stepped 
lightly off into space, and in a right 
line he floated directly into the open 
doorway of the rocket-plane. The door 
clanged shut behind him and in a mat- 
ter of moments he stood in the control 
room of the racer, divested of his 
armor and shaking hands with his friend 
and co-laborer, Frederick Rodebush. 

ELL, Fred, what do you know?” 
Oeveland asked, as soon as greet- 
ings had been exchanged. "How do the 
various reports dovetail together? I 
know that you couldn't tell me anything 
on the wave, but there’s no danger of 
eavesdroppers here.” 

“You can’t tell,” Rodebush soberly re- 
plied. “We’re just beginning to wake up 
to the fact that there are a lot of things 
we don’t know anything about. Better 
wait until we’re back at the Hill. We 
have a full set of ultra screens around 
there now. There’s a couple of other 
good reasons, too — it would be better 
for both of us to go over the whole 
thing with Virgil, from the ground up; 
and we can’t do any more talking, any- 
way. Our orders are to get back there 
at maximum, and you know what that 
means aboard the ‘Sliver.’ Strap your- 


self solid in that shock-absorber there, 
and here’s a pair of ear-plugs.” 

“When the ‘Sliver’ really cuts loose 
it means a rough party, all right,” Cleve- 
land assented, snapping about his body 
the heavy spring-straps of his deeply 
cushioned seat, “but I’m just as anxious 
to get back to the Hill as anybody can 
be to get me there. All set.” 

Rodebush waved his hand at the pilot 
and the purring whisper of the ex- 
hausts changed instantly to a deafening, 
continuous explosion. The men were 
pressed deeply into their shock-absorb- 
ing chairs as the ‘Silver Sliver’ spun 
around her longitudinal axis and darted 
away' from the ‘Chicago’ with such a 
tremendous acceleration that the spher- 
ical warship seemed to be standing still 
in space. In due time the calculated 
mid-point was reached, the slim space- 
plane rolled over again, and, mad ac- 
celeration now reversed, rushed on to- 
ward the earth, but with constantly 
diminishing speed. Finally a measurable 
atmospheric pressure was encountered, 
the needle prow dipped downward, and 
the 'Silver Sliver’ shot forward upon 
her tiny wings and vanes, nose-rockets 
now drumming in staccato thunder. Her 
metal grew hot; dull red, bright red, 
yellow, blinding white; but it neither 
melted nor burned. The pilot’s calcu- 
lations had been sound, and though the 
limiting point of safety of temperature 
was reached and steadily held, it was 
not exceeded. As the density of the air 
increased so decreased the velocity of the 
man-made meteorite. So it was that a 
dazzling lance of fire sped high over 
Seattle, lower over Spokane, and hurled 
itself eastward, a furiously flaming ar- 
row ; slanting downward in a long, 
screaming dive toward the heart of the 
Rockies. As the now rapidly cooling 
greyhound of the skies passed over the 
western ranges of the Bitter Roots it 
became apparent that her goal was a 



TRIPLANETARY 


19 


vast, flat-topped, and conical mountain, 
shrouded in livid light ; a mountain 
whose height awed even its stupendous 
neighbors. 

While not artificial, the Hill had been 
altered markedly by the Triplanetary en- 
gineers who had built into it the head- 
quarters of the Secret Service. Its mile- 
wide top was a jointless expanse of gray 
armor steel; the steep, smooth surface 
of the truncated cone was a continuation 
of the same immensely thick sheet of 
metal. No known vehicle could climb 
that smooth, hard, forbidding slope of 
steel ; no known projectile could mar that 
armor; no known craft could even ap- 
proach the Hill without detection. Could 
not approach it at all, in fact, for it was 
constantly inclosed in a vast hemi- 
sphere of lambent violet flame through 
which neither material substance nor de- 
structive ray could pass. 

As the ‘Silver Sliver,’ crawling along 
at a bare three-hundred miles an hour, 
approached that transparent, brilliantly 
violet wall of destruction, a violet light 
filled her control room and as suddenly 
went out; flashing on and off again and 
again. 

“Giving us the once-over, eh?” Cleve- 
land asked. “That is something new, 
isn’t it, Fred?” 

“Yes, it’s a high-powered ultra- wave 
spy,” Rodenbush returned. “The light 
is simply a warning, which can be carried 
if desired. It can also carry voice and 
vision. . . . 

“ T IKE this,” Samms’ voice interrupted 

X_> from the powerful dynamic speak- 
er upon the pilots’ panel and his clear- 
cut face appeared upon the television 
screen. “I don’t suppose Fred thought 
to mention it, but this is one of his in- 
ventions of the last few days. We are 
just trying it out on you. It doesn’t 
mean a thing though, as far as the 
‘Sliver’ is concerned., Come ahead!” 


A circular opening appeared in the 
wall of force, an opening which disap- 
peared as soon as the plane had darted 
through it; and at the same time her 
landing-cradle rose into the air through 
a great trap-door. Slowly and gracefully 
the space-plane settled downward into 
that cushioned embrace. Then cradle 
and nestled ‘Sliver’ sank from view 
and, turning smoothly upon mighty trun- 
nions, the plug of armor drove solidly 
back into its place in the metal pavement 
of the mountain’s lofty summit. The 
cradle-elevator dropped rapidly, coming 
to rest many levels down in the heart of 
the Hill, and Cleveland and Rodebush 
leaped lightly out of their transport, 
through her still hot outer walls. A 
door opened before them and they 
found themselves in a large room of 
full daylight illumination ; the ante- 
room of the private office of Virgil 
Samms. Chiefs of Departments sat at 
their desks, concentrated upon prob- 
lems or at ease, according to the de- 
mands of the moment; televisotypes and 
recorders flashed busily but silently ; 
calmly efficient men and women went 
wontedly about the all-embracing busi- 
ness of Triplanetary’s space-pervading 
Secret Service. 

“Right of way, Norma?” Rodebush 
paused briefly before the desk of the 
Chief’s private secretary; but even be- 
fore he had spoken she had pressed a 
button and the door behind her swung 
wide. 

“You two do not need to be an- 
nounced,” the attractive young woman 
smiled. “Go right in.” 

Samms met them at the door eagerly, 
shaking hands particularly vigorously 
with Cleveland. 

“Congratulations on that camera, Ly- 
man!” he exclaimed. “You did a won- 
derful piece of work on that. Help 
yourselves to smokes and sit down — 
there are a lot of things we want to 


20 


AMAZING STORIES 


talk over. Your pictures carried most 
of the story, but they would have left 
us pretty much as sea without Costigan’s 
reports. But as it was, Fred here and 
his crew worked out most of the an- 
swers from the dope the two of you 
got; and what few they haven’t got yet 
they soon will have.” 


“"^TOTHING new on Conway?” 

^ Cleveland was almost afraid to 
ask the question. 

“No.” A shadow came over Samms’ 
face. “I’m afraid . . . but I’m hop- 
ing it’s only that those creatures, what- 
ever they are, have taken him so far 
away that he can’t reach us.” 

“They certainly are so far away that 
we can’t reach them,” Rodenbush vol- 
unteered. “We can’t even get their ultra- 
wave interference any more.” 

“Yes, that’s a hopeful sign,” Samms 
went on. “I hate to think of Conway 
Costigan checking out. There, fel- 
lows, was a real observer. He was the 
only man, I have ever known, who 
combined the two qualities of the per- 
fect witness. He could actually see 
everything he looked at, and could re- 
port it truly, to the last, least detail. 
Take all this stuff, for instance; espe- 
cially their ability to transform iron into 
a fluid allotrope, and in that form to 
use its intra-atomic energy as power. 
Something brand new — unheard of ex- 
cept in the ravings of imaginative fic- 
tion — and yet he described their con- 
verters and projectors so minutely that 
Fred was able to work out the underly- 
ing theory in three days, and to tie it in 
with our own super-ship. My first 
thought was that we’d have to rebuild it 
iron-free, but Fred showed me my error 
— you found it first yourself, of course.” 

“It wouldn’t do any good to make the 
ship non-ferrous unless you could so 
change our blood chemistry that we 
could get along without hemoglobin, and 


that would be quite a feat,” Cleveland 
agreed. “Then, too, our most vital elec- 
trical machinery is built around iron 
cores. No, we’ll have to develop a 
screen for those forces — screens, rather, 
so powerful that they can’t drive any- 
thing through them.” 

“We’ve been working along those 
lines ever since you reported,” Rodebush 
said, “and we’re beginning to see light. 
And in that same connection it’s no won- 
der that we couldn’t handle our super- 
ship. We had some good ideas, but they 
were wrongly applied. However, things 
look quite promising now. We have 
that transformation of iron all worked 
out in theory, and as soon as we get a 
generator going we can straighten out 
everything else in short order. And 
think what that unlimited power means! 
All the power we want — power enough 
even to try out such hitherto purely 
theoretical possibilities as the neutrali- 
zation of gravity, and even of the inertia 
of matter!” 

“Hold on!” protested Samms. “You 
certainly can’t do that! Inertia is — must 
be — a basic attribute of matter, and 
surely cannot be done away with wittr- 
out destroying the matter itself. Don’t 
start anything like that, Fred — I don’t 
want to lose you and Lyman, too.” 

“Don’t worry about us. Chief,” Rode- 
bush replied with a smile. “If you will 
tell me what matter is, fundamentally, I 
may agree with you . . . No? Well, 
then, don’t be surprised at anything 
that happens. We are going to do a 
lot of things that nobody ever thought of 
doing before.” 

Thus for a long time the argument and 
discussion went on, to be interrupted 
by the voice of the secretary. 

“Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Samms, 
but some things have come up that you 
will have to handle. Knobos is calling 
from out near Mars. He has caught the 
‘Endymion,’ and has killed about half 


/ 


TRIPLANETARY 


21 


her crew doing it. Milton has finally re- 
ported from Venus, after being out of 
touch for five days. He trailed the 
Wintons into Thalleron swamp. They 
crashed him there, but he won out and 
has what he went after. And just now 
I got a flash from Fletcher, in the aste- 
roid belt. I think that he has finally 
traced that dope line. But Knobus is on 
now — what do you want him to do 
about the ‘Endymion’?” 

“Tell him to — ^no, put him on here, 
I’d better tell him myself,” Samms di- 
rected, and his face hardened in ruth- 
less decision as the horny, misshapen 
face of the Martian lieutenant appeared 
upon the screen. “What do you think, 
Knobos? Shall they come to trial or 
not ?” 

“No.” 

“I don’t think so, either. It is bet- 
ter that a few gangsters should disap- 
pear in space than run the risk of 
another uprising. See to i^” 

“Right” The screen darkened and 
Samms spoke to his secretary. “Put 
Milton and Fletcher on whenever their 
rays come in.” He then turned to his 
guests. “We’ye covered the ground quite 
thoroughly. Goodbye — I wish I could 
go with you, but I’ll be pretty well tied 
up for the next week or two.” 

“'■J^IED up, doesn’t half express it,” 

•I. Rodebush remarked as the two 
scientists walked along a corridor to- 
ward an elevator. “He probably is the 
busiest man on the three planets.” 

“As well as the most powerful,” 
Cleveland supplemented. “And very 
few men could use his power as fairly 
— ^but he’s welcome to it, as far as I’m 
concerned. I’d have the pink fantods 
for a month if I had to do only once 
what he’s just done — and to him it’s just 
part of a day’s work.” 

“You mean the ‘Endymion?’ What 
else could he do?” 


“Nothing — ^that’s just what I’m talk- 
ing about. It had to be done, since 
bringing them to trial would probably 
mean killing half the people of Morseca; 
but at the same time it’s a ghastly thing 
to have to order a job of deliberate, 
cold-blooded, and illegal murder.” 

“You’re right, of course, but you 
would . . .” he broke off, unable to 
put his thoughts into words. For while 
inarticulate, manlike, concerning their 
deepest emotions, in both men was in- 
grained the code of their organization; 
both knew that to every man chosen for 
it The Service was everything, himself 
nothing. 

“But enough of that, we’ll have plenty 
of grief of our own right here,” Rode- 
bush changed the subject abruptly as 
they stepped into a vast room, almost 
filled by the immense bulk of the “Boise” 
— ^the sinister space-ship which, although 
never flown, had already lined with black 
so many pages of Triplanetary’s roster. 
She was now, however, the center of a 
furious activity. Men swarmed over her 
and through her, in the orderly confu- 
sion of a fiercely driven but carefully 
planned program of reconstruction. 

■ “I hope your dope is right, Fred!” 
Cleveland called, as the two scientists 
separated to go to their respective lab- 
oratories. “If it is, we’ll make a per- 
fect lady out of this unmanageable man- 
killer yet!” 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Super-Ship Is Launched 

AFTER weeks of ceaseless work, 
during which was lavished upon 

^ her every resource of mind and 
material afforded by three planets, the 
‘Boise’ was ready for her maiden flight. 
As nearly ready, that is, as the thought 
and labor of man could make her. Rode- 
bush and Cleveland had finished their 


22 


AMAZING STORIES 


last rigid inspection of the craft and, 
standing beside the center door of the 
main airlock, were talking with their 
chief. 

“You say that you think that it’s safe, 
and yet you won’t take a crew,” Samms 
argued. “In that case it isn’t safe 
enough for you men, either. We need 
you too badly to permit you to take such 
chances.” 

“You’ve got to let us go, because we 
are the only ones who are thoroughly 
familiar with her theory,” Rodebush in- 
sisted. “I said, and still say, that I 
think it is safe. I can’t prove it, how- 
ever, except mathematically ; because 
she’s altogether too full of too many 
new and untried mechanisms, too many 
extrapolations beyond all existing or pos- 
sible data. Theoretically, she is sound, 
but you know that theory can go only 
so far, and that mathematically neg- 
ligible factors may become operative at 
those velocities. We do not need a crew 
for a short trip. We can take care of 
any minor mishaps, and if our funda- 
mental theories are wrong, all the crews 
between here and Jupiter wouldn’t do 
any good. Therefore we two are go- 
ing — alone.” 

“Well, be very careful, anyway. Start 
out slow and take it easy.” 

“Start out slow? We can’t! We can’t 
neutralize half of gravity, nor half 
of the inertia of matter — it’s got to be 
everything or nothing, as soon as the 
neutralizers go on. We could start out 
on the projectors, of course, instead of 
on the neutralizers, but that wouldn’t 
prove anything and would only prolong 
the agony.” 

“Well, then, be as careful as you can.” 

"We'll do that. Chief,” Cleveland put 
in. “We think a lot of us, and we 
aren’t committing suicide just yet if we 
can help it. And remember about 
everybody staying inside when we take 
off — ^it’s barely possible that we’l! take up 


a lot of room. Good-bye to all of you.” 

“Good-bye, fellows!” 

The massive insulating doors were 
shut, the metal side of the mountain 
opened, and huge, squat caterpillar trac- 
tors came roaring and clanking into the 
room. Chains and cables were made 
fast and, mighty steel rails groaning un- 
der the load, the space-ship upon her 
rolling ways was dragged out of the 
Hill and far out upon the level floor of 
the surface before the tractors cast off 
and returned to the fortress. 

“Everybody is under cover,” Samms 
informed Rodebush. The chief was 
staring intently into his plate, upon which 
was revealed the control room of the 
untried super-ship. He heard Rode- 
bush speak to Qeveland; heard the ob- 
server’s brief reply; saw the navigator 
throw his switches-r-then the communi- 
cator plate went blank. Not the ordinary 
blankness of a cut-off, but a peculiarly 
disquieting fading out into darkness. 
And where the great space-ship had 
rested there was for an instant nothing. 
Exactly nothing — a vacuum. Vessel, 
falsework, rollers, trucks, the enormous 
steel I-beams of the tracks, even the 
deep-set concrete piers and foundations 
and a vast hemisphere of the solid 
ground; all had disappeared utterly and 
instantaneously. But almost as sudden- 
ly as it had been formed the vacuum was 
filled by a cyclonic rush of air. There 
was a detonation as of a hundred vicious 
thunderclaps made one, and, through the 
howling, shrieking blasts of wind, there 
rained down upon the valley, plain, and 
metaled mountain a veritable avalanche 
of debris : bent, twisted, and broken 
rails and beams, splintered timbers, 
masses of concrete, and thousands of 
cubic yards of soil and rock. For inertia 
and gravitation had not been neutralized 
at precisely the same instant, and for a 
moment everything within the radius of 
action of the iron-driven gravity nulli- 


TRIPLANETAHY 


23 


fiers of the "Boise” had continued its 
absolute motion with inertia unimpaired. 
Then, left behind immediately by the 
almost infinite velocity of the cruiser, all 
this material had again become subject 
to all of Nature’s everyday laws and 
had crashed back to the ground. 

“y^OULD you hold your beam, Ran- 
dolph?” Samm’s voice cut sharply 
through the daze of stupefaction which 
held spellbound most of the denizens of 
the Hill. But all were not so held — no 
conceivable emergency could take the at- 
tention of the chief ultra- wave operator 
from his instruments. 

“No, sir,” Radio Center shot back. “It 
faded out and I couldn’t recover it. I 
put everything I’ve got behind a tracer 
on that beam, but haven’t been able to 
lift a single needle off the pin.” 

“And no wreckage of the vessel it- 
self,” Samms went on, half audibly. 
“Either they have succeeded far beyond 
their wildest hftpes or else . . . more 
probably. . . He fell silent and 
switched off the plate. Were his two 
friends, those intrepid scientists, alive 
and triumphant, or had they gone to 
lengthen the list of victims of that man- 
killing space-ship? Reason told him that 
they were gone. They must be gone, or 
else his ultra-beams — energies of such 
unthinkable velocity of propagation that 
man’s most sensitive instruments had 
never been able even to estimate it — 
would have held the ship’s transmitter in 
spite of any velocity attainable by any 
matter under any conceivable conditions. 
The ship must have been disintegrated 
as soon as Rodebush released his forces. 
And yet, had not the physicist dimly 
foreseen the possibility of such an actual 
velocity — or had he? However, individ- 
uals could came and could go, but Tri- 
planetary went on. Samms squared his 
shoulders unconsciously, and slowly, 


grimly, made his way back to his pri- 
vate office. 

He had scant time to mourn. Scarcely 
had he seated himself at his desk when 
an emergency call came snapping in; a 
call of such import that his secretary’s 
usually calm voice trembled as she put 
it on his plate. 

"Commissioner Hinkle is calling, sir,” 
she announced. “Something terrible is 
going on again, out toward Orion. Here 
he is,” and there appeared upon the 
screen the face of the Commissioner of 
Public Safety, the commander of Tri- 
planetary’s every armed force — whether 
of land or of water, of air or of empty 
space. 

“They’ve come back, Samms!” the 
Commissioner rapped out, without pre- 
liminary or greeting. “Four vessels 
gone — a freighter and a passenger liner, 
with her escort of two heavy cruisers. 
All in Sector M; Dx about 151. I have 
ordered all traffic out of space for the 
duration of the emergency, and since 
even our warships seem useless, every 
ship is making for the nearest dock at 
maximum. How about that new flyer 
of yours — ^got anything that will do us 
any good? No one beyond the “Hill’s” 
shielding screens knew that the “Boise” 
had already been launched. 

“I don’t know. We don’t even know 
whether we have a super-ship or not,” 
and Samms described briefly the begin- 
ning — and very probably the ending — 
of the trial flight, concluding: “It looks 
bad, but if there was any possible way 
of handling her, Rodebush and Cleve- 
land did it. All our tracers are negative 
yet, so nothing definite has . . . ” 

He broke off as a frantic call came 
in from the Pittsburgh station for the 
Commissioner, a call which Samms both 
heard and saw. 

“The city is being attacked !” came the 
urgent message. “We need all the re- 
inforcements you can send us!” and a 


24 


AMAZING STORIES 


pucture of the bekaguered city appeared 
in ghastly detail upon the screens of the 
observers; a view being recorded from 
the air. It required only seconds for the 
commissioner to order every available 
man and engine of war to the seat of 
conflict ; then, having done everything 
they could, Hinkle and Samms stared in 
helpless, fascinated horror into their 
plates, watching the scenes of carnage 
and destruction depicted there. 

T he Nevian vessel — ^the sister-ship, 
the craft which Costigan had seen 
in mid-space as it hurtled earthward in 
response to Nerado’s summons — hung 
poised in full visibility, high above the 
metropolis. Scornful of the pitiful weap- 
ons wielded by man she hung there, her 
sinister beauty of line sharply defined 
against the cloudless sky. From her 
shining hull there reached down a ten- 
uous but rigid rod of crimson energy; 
a rod which slowly swept hither and 
thither as the detectors of the amphib- 
ians searched out the richest deposits of 
the precious iron for which the inhuman 
visitors had come so far. Iron, once 
solid, now a viscous red liquid, was slug- 
gishly flowing in an ever-thickening 
stream up that intangible crimson duct 
and into the capacious storage tanks of 
the Nevian raider; and wherever that 
flaming beam went there went also ruin, 
destruction, and death. Office buildings, 
skyscrapers towering majestically in their 
architectural symmetry and beauty, col- 
lapsed into heaps of debris as their steel 
skeletons were abstracted. Deep into the 
ground the beam bored; flood, fire, and 
explosion following in its wake as the 
mazes of underground piping disap- 
peared. And the humanity of the build- 
ings died: instantaneously and painlessly, 
never knowing what- struck them, as 
the life-bearing iron of their bodies went 
to swell the Nevian stream. 

Pittsburgh’s defenses had been feeble 


indeed. A few antiquated railway rifles 
had hurled their shells upward in futile 
defiance, and had been quietly absorbed. 
The district planes of Triplanetary, new- 
ly armed with iron-driven ultra-beams, 
had assembled hurriedly and had at- 
tacked the invader in formation, with 
but little more success. Under the im- 
pact of their beams the stranger’s screens 
had flared white, then poised ship and 
flying squadron alike had been lost to 
view in a murkily opaque shroud of 
crimson flame. The cloud had soon dis- 
solved, and from the place where the 
planes had been there had floated or 
crashed down a litter of non-ferrous 
wreckage. And now the cone of space- 
ships from the Buffalo base of Tri- 
planetary was approaching Pittsburgh, 
hurling itself toward the Newan plun- 
derer and toward known, gruesome and 
hopeless defeat. 

“Stop them, Hinkle!” Samms cried. 
“It’s sheer slaughter! They haven’t got 
a thing — ^they aren’t even equipped yet 
with the iron drive!” 

“I know it,” the commissioner groaned, 
“and Admiral Barnes knows it as well 
as we do, but it can’t be helped — wait 
a minute! The Washington cone is re- 
porting. They’re as close as the other, 
and they have the new armament. Phila- 
delphia is close behind, and so is New 
York. Now perhaps we can do some- 
thing!” 

rt 'HE Buffalo flotilla slowed and 

A stopped, and in a matter of minutes 
the detachments from the other bases 
arrived. The cone was formed and, 
iron-driven vessels in the van, the old- 
type craft far in the rear, it bore down 
upon the Nevian, vomiting from its hol- 
low front a solid cylinder of annihila- 
tion. Once more 'the screens of the 
Nevian flared into brilliance, once more 
the red cloud of destruction was flung 
abroad. But these vessels were not en- 


TRIPLANETARY 


25 


tirely defenseless. Their iron-driven 
ultra-generators threw out screens of the 
Nevians’ own formula, screens of pro- 
digious power to which the energies of 
the amphibians clung and at which they 
clawed and tore in baffled, wildly corus- 
cant displays of power unthinkable. For 
minutes the furious conflict raged, while 
the inconceivable energy being dissipated 
by those straining screens hurled itself 
in terribly destructive bolts of lightning 
upon the city far beneath. 

No battle of such incredible violence 
could long endure. Triplanetary ’s ships 
were already exerthtg their utmost power, 
while the Nevians, contemptuous of So- 
larian science, had not yet uncovered 
their full strength. Thus the last des- 
perate effort of mankind was proved 
futile as the invaders forced their beams 
deeper and deeper into the overloaded, 
defensive screens of the war-vessels ; and 
one by one the supposedly invincible 
space-ships of humanity dropped in hor- 
ribly dismembered wreckage upon the 
ruins of what had once been Pittsburgh. 

CHAPTER IX 
Specimens 

O NLY too well founded was Cos- 
tigan’s conviction that the sub- 
marine of the deep-sea fishes had 
not been able to prevail against Nerado’s 
formidable engines of destruction. For 
days the Nevian lifeboat with its three 
Terrestrial passengers hurtled through 
the interstellar void without incident, but 
finally the operative’s fears were realized 
— ^his far-flung detector screens reacted ; 
upon his observation plate lay revealed 
Nerado’s mammoth space-ship, in full 
pursuit of its fleeing life-boat ! 

“On your toes, folks — it won’t be long 
now!” Costigan called, and Bradley and 
Oio hurried into the tiny control room. 
Armor donned and tested, the three 


Terrestrials stared into the observation 
plates, watching the rapidly enlarging 
pictures of the Nevian space-ship. Ne- 
rado had traced them and was following 
them, and such was the power of the 
great vessel that the nearly inconceivable 
velocity of the lifeboat was the veriest 
crawl in comparison to that of the pur- 
suing cruiser. 

“And we’ve hardly started to cover 
the distance back to Tellus. Of course 
you couldn’t get in touch with anybody 
yet?” Bradley stated, rather than asked. 

“I kept on trying until they blanketed 
my wave, but all negative. Thousands 
of times too far for my transmitter. Our 
only hope of reaching anybody was the 
mighty slim chance that our super-ship 
might be prowling around out here al- 
ready, but it isn’t, of course. Here they 
are!" 

Reaching out to the control panel, 
Costigan shot out against the great ves- 
sel wave after wave of lethal vibrations, 
under whose fiercely clinging impacts the 
Nevian defensive screens flared white; 
but, strangely enough, their own screens 
did not radiate. As if contemptuous of 
any weapons the lifeboat might wield, 
the mother ship simply defended herself 
from the attacking beams, in much the 
same fashion as a wildcat mother wards 
off the claws and teeth of her spitting, 
snarling kitten who is resenting a touch 
of needed maternal discipline. 

“They probably won’t fight us, at 
that,” Clio first understood the situation. 
“This is their own lifeboat, and they 
want us alive, you know.” 

“There’s one more thing we can try — 
hang on!” Costigan snapped, as he re- 
leased his screens and threw all his 
power into one enormous pressor beam. 

The three were thrown to the floor 
and held there by an awful weight, as 
if the lifeboat darted away at the stu- 
pendous acceleration of the beam’s reac- 
tion against the unimaginable mass of 


26 


AMAZING STORIES 


the Nevian sky-rover; but the flight was 
of short duration. Along that pressor 
beam there crept a dull rod of energy, 
which surrounded the fugitive shell and 
brought it slowly to a halt. Furiously 
then Costigan set and reset his controls, 
launching his every driving force and 
his every weapon, but no beam could 
penetrate that red murk, and the life- 
bpat remained motionless in space. No, 
not motionless — ^the red rod was short- 
ening, drawing the truant craft back, to- 
ward the launching port from which she 
had so hopefully emerged a few days 
before. Back and back it was drawn; 
Costig^n’s utmost efforts futile to affect 
by a hair’s breadth its line of motion. 
Through the open port the boat slipped 
neatly, and as it came to a halt in its 
original position within the multi-layered 
skin of the monster, the prisoners heard 
the heavy doors clang shut behind them, 
one after another. 

And then sheets of blue fire snapped 
and crackled all about the three suits of 
Triplanetary armor — ^the two large hu- 
man figures and the small one were out- 
lined starkly in blinding blue flame. 

“''I^HAT’S the first thing that has 

A come off according to schedule.” 
Costigan laughed, a short, fierce bark. 
“That is their paralyzing ray; we’ve 
got it stopped cold, and we’^^e each got 
enough iron to hold it forever.” 

“But it looks as though the best we 
can do is to stalemate,” Bradley argued. 
“Even if they can’t paralyze us, we can’t 
hurt them, and we are heading back for 
Nevia.” 

“I think Nerado will come in for a 
conference, and we’ll be able to make 
terms of some kind. He must know 
what these Lewistons will do, and he 
knows that we’ll get a chance to use 
them, some way or other, before he gets 
to us again,” Costigan asserted confi- 
dently — but again he was wrong. 


The door opened, and through it there 
waddled, rolled, or crawled a metal-clad 
monstrosity — a thing with wheels, legs, 
and writhing tentacles of jointed bronze ; 
a thing possessed of defensive screens 
sufficiently powerful to absorb the full 
blast of the Triplanetary projectors with- 
out effort. Three brazen tentacles reached 
out through the ravening beams of the 
Lewistons, smashed them to bits, and 
wrapped themselves in imbreakable 
shackles about the armored forms of the 
three human beings. Through the door 
the machine or creature carried its help- 
less load, and out into and along a main 
corridor. And soon the three Terres- 
trials, without armor, without arms, and 
almost without clothing, were standing in 
the control room, again facing the calm 
and unmoved Nerado. To the surprise 
of the impetuous Costigan, the Nevian 
commander was entirely without rancor. 

“The desire for freedom is perhaps 
common to all forms of animate life,” 
he commented, through the transformer. 
“As I told you before, however, you are 
specimens to be studied by the College 
of Science, and you shall be so studied 
in spite of anything you may do. Re- 
sign yourselves to that.” 

“Well, say that we don’t try to make 
any more trouble; that we co-operate in 
the examination and give you whatever 
information we can,” Costigan suggested. 
“Then you will probably be willing to 
give us a ship, and let us go back to 
our own world?” 

“You will not be allowed to cause any 
more trouble,” the amphibian declared, 
coldly. “Your co-operation will not be 
required. We will take from you what- 
ever knowledge and information we 
wish. In all probability you will never 
be allowed to return to your own sys- 
tem, because as specimens you are too 
unique to lose. But enough of this idle 
chatter — take them back to their 
quarters !” 


TRIPLANETARY 


27 


And back to their inter-communicating 
rooms the prisoners were led under heavy 
guard. 

True to his word, Nerado made cer- 
tain that they had no more opportunities 
to escape. All the way back to far- 
distant Nevia the space-ship sped, where 
at once, in manacles, the Terrestrials 
were taken to the College of Science, 
there to undergo the physical and psy- 
chical examinations which Nerado had 
promised them. 

C LIO and Costigan learned that the 
Nevian scientist-captain had not 
erred in stating that their co-operation 
was neither needed nor desired. Furi- 
ous but impotent, the human beings were 
studied in laboratory after laboratory by 
the coldly analytical, unfeeling scientists 
of Nevia, to whom they were nothing 
more nor less than specimens ; and in full 
measure they came to know what it 
meant to play the part of an unknown, 
lowly organism in a biological research. 
They were photographed, externally and 
internally. Every bone, muscle, organ, 
vessel, and nerve was studied and 
charted. Every reflex and reaction was 
noted and discussed. Meters registered 
every impulse and recorders filmed every 
thought, every idea, and every sensation. 
Endlessly, day after day, the nerve- 
wracking torture went on, until the 
frantic subjects could bear no more. 
White-faced and shaking, Clio finally 
screamed wildly, hysterically, as she was 
being strapped down upon a laboratory 
bench ; and at the sound Costigan's 
nerves, already at the breaking point, 
gave way in an outburst of Berserk 
fury. 

The man’s struggles and the girl’s 
shrieks were alike futile, but the sur- 
prised Nevians, after a consultation, de- 
cided to give the specimens a vacation. 
To that end they were installed, together 
with their earthly belongings, in a three- 


ropmed structure of transparent metal, 
floating in the large central lagoon of 
the city. There they were left undis- 
turbed for a time — undisturbed, that is, 
except by the continuous gaze of the 
crowd of hundreds of amphibians which 
constantly surrounded the floating cot- 
tage. 

“First we’re bugs under a microscope,” 
Bradley growled, “then we’re goldfish in 
a bowl. I don’t know that ...” 

He broke off as two of their jailers 
entered the room. Without a word into 
the transformers, they seized Bradley and 
the girl. As those tentacular arms 
stretched out toward Clio, Costigan 
leaped. A vain attempt. In midair the 
paralyzing ray of the Nevians touched 
him and he crashed heavily to the crys- 
tal floor; and from that floor he looked 
on in helpless, raging fury while his 
sweetheart and his captain were carried 
out of their prison and into a waiting 
submarine, 

CHAPTER X 

The ‘Boise’ Acts 

B ut what of the super-ship? What 
happened after that inertialess, 
that terribly destructive take-off? 
Doctor Frederick Rodebush sat at the 
control panel of Triplanetary’s newly re- 
constructed space-ship, his hands grasp- 
ing the gleaming, ebonite handles of two 
double-throw switches. Facing the un- 
known though the physicist was, yet he 
grinned whimsically at his friend. 

“Something, whatever it is, is about 
to take place. The ‘Boise’ is taking off, 
under full neutralization. Ready for any- 
thing to happen, Cleve?” 

“All ready — shoot I” Laconically. Qeve- 
land also was constitutionally unable to 
voice his deeper sentiments in time of 
stress. 

Rodebush flipped the switches clear 


28 


AMAZING STORIES 


over in flashing arcs, and instantly over 
both men there came a sensation akin to 
a tremendously intensified vertigo; but 
a vertigo as far beyond the space-sick- 
ness of weightlessness, as that horrible 
sensation is beyond mere terrestrial diz- 
ziness. The pilot tried to reverse the 
switches he had just thrown, but his 
leaden hands utterly refused to obey the 
dictates of his reeling mind. His brain 
was a writhing, convulsive mass of tor- 
ment indescribable; expanding, explod- 
ing, swelling out with an unendurable 
pressure against its confining skull. Fiery 
spirals, laced with streaming, darting 
lances of black and green, flamed inside 
his bursting eyeballs. The Universe spun 
and whirled in mad gyrations about him 
as he reeled drunkenly to his feet, stag- 
gering and sprawling. He fell. He real- 
ized that he was falling, yet he could not 
fall! Thrashing wildly, grotesquely in 
agony, he struggled madly and blindly 
across the room, directly toward the thick 
steel wall. The tip of one hair of his 
unruly thatch touched the wall, and the 
slim length of that single hair did not 
even bend as its slight strength brought 
to an instant halt the hundred-and- 
eighty-odd pounds of mass — mass now 
entirely without inertia — that was his 
body. 

But finally the sheer brain power of 
the man began to triumph over his physi- 
cal torture. By indomitable force of will 
he compelled his groping hands to seize 
a life-line, almost meaningless to his 
dazed intelligence ; and through that 
nightmare incarnate of hellish torture he 
fought his way back to the control board. 
Hooking one leg around a standard, he 
made a seemingly enormous eflfort and 
drove the two switches back into their 
or^nal positions; then fell flat upon the 
floor, weakly but in a wave of relief and 
thankfulness, as his racked body felt 
again the wonted phenomena of weight 
and of inertia. White, trembling, frankly 


and openly sick, the two men stared at 
each other in half-amazed joy. 

“It worked.” Cleveland smiled wanly 
as he recovered sufficiently to speak, then 
leaped to his feet. “Snap it up, Fred! 
We must be falling fast — ^we’ll be 
wrecked when we hit!” 

“We’‘re not falling anywhere.” .Rode- 
bush, foreboding in his eyes, walked over 
to the main observation plate and scanned 
the heavens. “However, it’s not as bad 
as I was afraid it might be. I can still 
recognize a few of the constellations, 
even though they are all pretty badly 
distorted. That means that we can’t be 
more than a couple of light-years or so 
away from the Solar System. Of course, 
since we had so little thrust on, prac- 
tically all of our time and energy was 
spent in getting out of the atmosphere; 
but, even at that, it’s a good thing that 
space isn’t an absolutely perfect vacuum, 
or we would have been clear out of the 
Universe by this time.” 

“ r TUH ? Impossible — where are we, 

A A anyway ? Then we must be mak- 
ing mil . . . Oh, I see! Cleveland ex- 
claimed in disjointed sentences as he also 
stared into the plate. 

“Right. We aren’t traveling at all, 
now” Rodebush replied. “We are per- 
fectly stationary relative to Tellus, since 
we made the hop without inertia. We 
must have attained one hundred per cent 
neutralization, which we didn’t quite ex- 
pect, and therefore we must have stopped 
instantaneously when our inertia was re- 
stored. But it isn’t where we are that’s 
worrying me the most — we can fix our 
place in space accunately enough by a 
few observations — it’s when” 

“That’s right, too. Say we’re two 
light-years away. You think maybe 
we’re two years older than we were ten 
minutes ago, then? That’s possible, of 
course, maybe probable : there’s been 
a lot of discussion on that theory. Now’s 


TRIPLANETARY 


29 


a good time to prove or to disprove it. 
Let’s snap back to Tellus and find out.” 

“We’ll do that, after a little more ex- 
perimenting. You see, I had no intention 
of giving us such a long push. I was 
going to throw the switches over and 
back, but you know what happened. 
However, there’s one good thing about 
it — it’s worth two years of anybody’s life 
to settle that relativity-time thing defi- 
nitely, one way or the other.” 

“I’ll say it is. But say, we’ve got a 
lot of power on our ultra- wave: enough 
to reach Tellus, I think. Let’s locate the 
sun and get in touch with Samms.” 

“Let’s work on these controls a little 
first, so we’ll have something to report. 
Out here’s a fine place to try the ship 
out — nothing in the way.” 

“All right with me. But I would like 
to find out whether I’m two years older 
than I think I am ~'T not!’| 

Then for hours they put the great 
super-ship through her paces, just as 
test-pilots check up on every detail of 
performance of an airplane of new and 
radical design. They found that the hor- 
rible vertig- -could be endured, perhaps 
in time even conquered as -space-sickness 
could be conquered, by a strong will in 
a sound body; and that their new con- 
veyance had possibilities of which even 
Rodebush had never dreamed. Finally, 
their most pressing questions answered, 
they turned their most powerful ultra- 
beam communicator toward the yellowish 
star which they knew to be Old Sol. 

“Samms . . . Samms.” Cleveland spoke 
slowly and distinctly. “Rodebush and 
Cleveland reporting from the ‘Space- 
Eating Wampus’, now directly in line 
with Beta Ursoe Minoris from the sun, 
distance about two point two light years. 
It will take six banks of tubes on your 
tightest beam, LSV3, to reach us. Bar- 
ring a touch of an unusually severe type 
of space-sickness, everything worked 
beautifully; even better than our calcula- 


tions showed. There’s something we 
want to know right away — ^have we been 
gone four hours and some odd minutes, 
or better than two years?” 

He shut off the power, turned to 
Rodebush, and went on: 

“Nobody knows how fast this ultra- 
wave travels, but if it goes as fast as 
we did coming out it’s certainly moving. 
I’ll give him about thirty minutes, then 
shoot in another call.” 

But in less than two minutes the care- 
ravaged face of their chief appeared 
sh^p and clear upon their plates and his 
voice snapped curtly from the speaker. 

I 'HANK God you’re alive, and twice 

A that the ship works !” he exclaimed. 
“You’ve been gone four hours, eleven 
minutes, and forty-one seconds, but never 
mind about abstract theorizing. Get back 
here, to Pittsburgh, as fast as you can 
drive. That Nevian vessel or another 
like her is mopping up the city, and has 
destroyed half the Fleet already!” 

“We’ll be back there in nine minutes !” 
Rodebush snapped into the transmitter. 
“Two to get from here to atmosphere, 
four from atmosphere down to the Hill, 
and three to cool off. Notify the full 
four-shift crew — everybody we’ve picked 
out. Don’t need anybody else. Ship, 
batteries, and armament are ready!” 

“Two minutes to atmosphere, and it 
took ten coming out? Think you can 
do it?” Cleveland asked, as Rodebush 
flipped off the power and leaped to the 
control panel. 

“We could do it in a few seconds if 
we had to. We used scarcely any power 
at all coming out, and I’m not using very 
much going back,” the physicist ex- 
plained rapidly, as he set the dials which 
would determine their flashing course. 

The master switches were thrown and 
the pangs of inertialessness again assailed 
them — but weaker far this time than 
ever before — and upon their lookout 


30 


AMAZING STORIES 


plates they beheld a spectacle never be- 
fore seen by eye of man. For the ultra- 
beam, with its heterodyned vision, is not 
distorted by any velocity yet attained, as 
are the ether-borne rays of hght. Con- 
verted into light only at the plate, it 
showed their progress as truly as though 
they had been traveling at a pace to be 
expressed in the ordinary terms of 
miles per hour. The yellow star that 
was the sun detached itself from the 
firmament and leaped toward them, swell- 
ing visibly, momentarily, into a blinding 
monster of incandescence. And toward 
them also flung the earth, enlarging with 
such indescribable rapidity that Cleve- 
land protested involuntarily, in spite of 
his knowledge of the peculiar mechanism 
of the vessel in which they were. 

“Hold it, Fred, hold it! Way 'nuffi” 
he exclaimed. 

“I’m using only ten thousand dynes, 
so she’ll stop herself as soon as we touch 
atmosphere, long before she can even 
begin to heat,” Rodebush explained. 
“Looks bad, but we’ll stop without a 
jar.” 

And they did. Weightless and with- 
out inertia, gravitation powerless against 
her neutralizing generators, the great 
super-ship came from her practically in- 
finite velocity to an almost instantaneous 
halt in the outermost, most tenuous 
layer of the earth’s atmosphere. Her 
halt was but momentary. Inertia restored 
and gravitation allowed again to affect 
her mass, she dropped at a sharp angle 
downward. More than dropped ; she was 
forced downward by one full battery of 
projectors; projectors driven by iron- 
powered generators. Soon they were 
over the Hill, whose violet screens went 
down at a word. 

F laming a dazzling white from the 
friction of the atmosphere through 
which she had torn her way, the ‘Boise’ 
slowed abruptly as she neared the 


ground, plunging toward the surface 
of the small but deep artificial lake below 
the Hill's steel apron. Into the cold 
waters the space-ship dove, and even be- 
fore they could close over her, furious 
geysers of steam and boiling water 
erupted as the stubborn alloy gave up 
its heat to the cooling liquid. Endlessly 
the three necessary minutes dragged their 
slow way into time, but finally the water 
ceased boiling and Rodebush tore the 
ship from the lake and hurled her into 
the gaping doorway of her dock. The 
massive doors of the air-locks opened, 
and while the full crew of picked men 
hurried aboard with their personal 
equipment, Samms talked earnestly to the 
two sdentists in the control room. 

“ . . . and about half the fleet is still 
in the air. They aren’t attacking; they 
are just trying to keep her from doing 
much more damage until you can get 
there. How about your take-off? We 
can’t launch you again — the tracks are 
gone — but you handled her easily enough 
coming in?” 

“That was all my fault,” Rodebush 
admitted. “I should have neutralized in- 
ertia first, but I had no idea that the 
fields would extend beyond the hull, nor 
that they wouldn’t act simultaneously. 
We’ll take her out on the projectors this 
time, though, the same as we brought her 
in — she handles like a bicycle. The pro- 
jector blast tears things up a little, but 
nothing serious. Have you got that Pitts- 
burgh beam for me yet? We’re about 
ready to go.” 

“Here it is. Doctor Rodebush,” came 
the secretary’s voice, and upon the screen 
there flashed into being the view of the 
events transpiring above that doomed 
city. “The dock is empty and sealed 
against your blast,” and thereupon “Good- 
bye, and power to your tubes!” came 
Samms’ ringing voice. 

As the words were being spoken 
mighty blasts of power raved from the 


TRIPLANETARY 


31 


driving projectors and the immense mass 
of the super-ship shot out through the 
portals and upward into the stratosphere. 
Through the tenuous atmosphere the 
huge ship rushed with ever-mounting 
speed, and while the hope of Triplan- 
etary drove eastward Rodebush studied 
the ever-changing scene of battle upon 
his plate and issued detailed instructions 
to the highly trained specialists manning 
every offensive and defensive weapon. 

But the Nevians did not wait to join 
battle until the newcomers arrived. Their 
detectors were sensitive — operative over 
untold thousands of miles — and the ultra- 
screen of the Hill had already been noted 
by the invaders as the earth’s only pos- 
sible source of trouble. Thus the de- 
parture of the ‘Boise’ had not gone un- 
noticed, and the fact, that, not even with 
his most penetrant rays could he see into 
her interior, had already given the 
Nevian commander some slight concern. 
Therefore, as soon as it was determined 
that the great ship was being directed 
toward Pittsburgh the fish-shaped cruiser 
of the void went into action. 

High in the stratosphere, speeding 
eastward, the immense mass of the 
‘Boise’ slowed abruptly,^ although no 
projector had slackened its effort. Cleve- 
land, eyes upon interferometer grating 
and spectrophotometer charts, fingers fly- 
ing over calculator keys, grinned as he 
turned toward Rodebush. 

“ TUST as you thought. Skipper; an 
J ultra-band pusher. C4V63L29. Shall 
I give him a little pull ?” 

“Not yet; let’s feel him out a little 
before we force a close-up. We’ve got 
plenty of mass. See what her does when 
I put full push on the projectors.” 

As the full power of the Terrestrial 
vessel was applied the Nevian was forced 
backward, away from the threatened city, 
against the full drive of her every pro- 
jector. ^oon, however, the advance was 


again checked, and both scientists read 
the reason upon their plates. The en- 
emy had put down re-enforcing rods of 
tremendous power. Three compression 
members spread out fanwise behind her, 
bracing her against the low mountainside, 
while one huge tractor beam was thrust 
directly downward, holding in an un- 
breakable grip a cylinder of earth ex- 
tending deep down into bedrock. 

“Two can play at that game!” And 
Rodebush drove down similar beams, 
and forward-reaching tractors as well. 
“Strap yourselves in solid, everybody!” 
he sounded a general warning. “Some- 
thing is going to give way somewhere 
soon, and when it does we’ll get a jolt!” 

And the promised jolt did indeed come 
soon. Prodigiously massive and power- 
ful as the Nevian was, the ‘Boise’ was 
even more massive and more powerful; 
and as the already enormous energy 
feeding the tractors, pushers, and pro- 
jectors was raised to its inconceivable 
maximum, the vessel of the enemy was 
hurled upward, backward; and that of 
earth shot ahead with a bounding leap 
that threatened to strain even her mighty 
members. The Nevian anchor-rods had 
not broken; they had simply pulled up 
the vast cylinders of solid rock that had 
formed their anchorages. 

“Grab him now !” Rodebush yelled, and 
even while an avalanche of falling rock 
was burying the countryside, Cleveland 
snapped a tractor ray upon the flying 
fish and pulled tentatively. 

Nor did the Nevian now seem averse 
to coming to grips. The two warring 
super-dreadnoughts darted toward each 
other, and from the invader there flooded 
out the dread crimson opacity which had 
theretofore meant the doom of all things 
Solarian. It flooded out and engulfed the 
immense mass of humanity’s hope in its 
spreading cloud of redly impenetrable 
murk. But not for long. Triplanetary’s 
super-ship boasted no ordinary Terres- 


32 


AMAZING STORIES 


trial defense, but was sheathed in screen 
after screen of ultra- vibrations ; impon- 
derable walls, it is true, but barriers 
impenetrable to any unfriendly wave. 
To the outer screen the red veil of the 
Nevians clung tenaciously, licking greed- 
ily at every square inch of the shielding 
sphere of force, but unable to find an 
opening through which to feed upon the 
steel of the ‘Boise’s’ armor. 

“Get back — ’way back! Go back and 
help Pittsburgh!’’ Rodebush drove an 
ultra-communicator beam through the 
murk to the instruments of the Terres- 
trial admiral; for the surviving warships 
of the Fleet — its most powerful units — 
were hurling themselves forward, to 
plunge into that red destruction. “None 
of you will last a second in this red 
field. And watch out for a violet field 
pretty soon — it’ll be worse than this. We 
can handle them alone, I think; but if 
we can’t, there’s nothing in the System 
that can help us!” 

And now the hitherto passive screen 
of the super-ship became active. At first 
invisible, it began to glow in livid, violet 
light, and as the glow brightened to 
unbearable intensity the entire spherical 
shield began to increase in size. Driven 
outward from the super-ship as a center, 
its advancing surface of seething energy 
consumed the crimson murk as a billow 
of blast-furnace heat consumes a cloud 
of snowflakes in the air above its shaft. 
Nor was the red death-mist all that was 
consumed. Between that ravening sur- 
face and the armor skin of the ‘Boise’ 
there was nothing. No debris, no atmos- 
phere, no vapor, no single atom of ma- 
terial substance — the first time in Ter- 
restrial experience that an absolute vacu- 
um had ever been attained! 

S TUBBORNLY contesting every foot 
of way lost, the Nevian fog retreated 
before the violet sphere of nothingness. 
Back and back it fell, disappearing alto- 


gether from all space as the violet tide 
engulfed the enemy vessel ; but the flying 
fish did not disappear. Her triple screens 
flashed into furiously incandescent splen- 
dor and she entered, unscathed, that vac- 
uous sphere, which collapsed instantly in- 
to an enormously elongated ellipsoid, at 
each focus a madly warring ship of 
space. 

Then in that tube of vacuum was 
waged a spectacular duel of ultra-weap- 
ons — weapons impotent in air, but deadly 
in empty space. Beams, rays, and rods 
of Titanic power smote cracklingly 
against ultra-screens equally capable. 
Time after time each contestant ran the 
gamut of the spectrum with his every 
available ultra-force, only to find all 
channels closed. For minutes the ter- 
rible straggle went on, then: 

“Cooper, Adlington, Spencer, Dutton!” 
Rodebush called into his transmitter. 
“Ready? Can’t touch him on the ultra, 
so I’m going onto the macro-bands. Give 
him everything you have as soon as I 
collapse the violet. Go!” 

At the word the violet barrier went 
down, and with a crash as of a disrupt- 
ing Universe the atmosphere rushed in- 
to the vcttd. And through the hurricane 
there shot out the deadliest material 
weapons of Triplanetary. Torpedoes — 
non-ferrous, ultra-screened, beam-dirigi- 
ble torpedoes charged with the most ef- 
fective forms of material destruction 
known to man. Cooper hurled his canis- 
ters of penetrating gas, Adlington his 
atomidron explosive bombs, Spencer his 
indestructible armor-piercing projectiles, 
and Dutton his shatteraMe flasks of the 
quintessence of corrosion — a sticky, tacky 
liquid of such dire potency that only one 
rare Solarian element could contain it. 
Ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred were 
thrown as fast as automatic machinery 
could launch them; and the Nevians 
found themselves adversaries not to be 
despised. Size for size, their screens 


TRIPLANETARY 


33 


were quite as capable as those of the 
‘Boise’. The Nevians’ destructive rays 
glanced harmlessly from their shields, 
and the Nevians’ elaborate screens, neu- 
tralized at impact by those of the tor- 
pedoes, were impotent to impede their 
progress. Each projectile must needs be 
caught and crushed individually by beams 
of the most prodigious power ; and while 
one was being annihilated dozens more 
were rushing to the attack. Then, while 
the twisting, dodging invader was busiest 
with the tiny but relentless destroyers, 
Rodebush launched his heaviest weapon. 

The macro-beams ! Prodigious stream- 
ers of bluish-green flame which tore sav- 
agely through course after course of 
Nevian screen! Malevolent fangs, driven 
with such power and velocity that they 
were biting into the very walls of the 
enemy vessel before the amphibians knew 
their defensive shells of force had been 
punctured! And the emergency screens 
of the invaders were equally futile. 
Course after course was sent out, only 
to flare viciously through the spectrum 
and to go black! 

O utfought at every turn, the 
now frantically dodging Nevian 
leaped away in headlong flight, only to 
be brought to a staggering, crashing halt 
as Cleveland nailed her with a tractor 
beam. But the Terrestrials were to learn 
that the Nevians held in reserve a means 
of retreat. The tractor snapped — sheared 
off squarely by a sizzling plane of force 
— and the fish-shaped cruiser faded from 
Cleveland’s sight, just as the ‘Boise’ had 
disappeared from the conimunicator 
plates of Radio Center, back in the Hill, 
when she was launched. But though 
the plates in the control room could not 
hold the Nevian, she did not vanish be- 
yond the ken of RandolfJi, now Com- 
munications Officer in the super-ship. 
For, warned and humiliated by his los- 
ing one speeding vessel from his plates 


in Radio Center, he was now ready for 
any emergency. Therefore as the Ne- 
vian fled, Randolph’s spy-ray held her, 
automatically behind it as there was the 
full output of twelve special banks of 
iron-driven power tubes ; and thus it 
was that the vengeful Terrestrials 
flashed immediately along the Nevians’ 
line of flight. Inertialess now, pausing 
briefly from time to time to enable the 
crew to accustom themselves to the new 
sensations, the ‘Boise’ pursued the in- 
vader; hurtling through the void with 
a velocity unthinkable. 

“He was easier to take than I thought 
he would be,” Qeveland grunted, star- 
ing into the plate. 

“I thought he had more stuff, too,” 
Rodebush assented; “but I guess Costi- 
gan got almost everything they had. If 
so, with all our own stuff and most of 
theirs besides, we should be able to take 
them. They must have neutralization, 
too, to take off like that; and if it’s 
one hundred per cent we’ll never catch 
them . . . but it isn’t — ^there they are!” 

“And this time I’m going to hold her 
or burn out all our generators tr3ring,” 
Qeveland declared, grimly. “Are you 
fellows down there able to handle your- 
selves yet? Fine! Start throwing out 
yoiu" cans !” 

Space-hardened veterans all, the other 
Terrestrial officers had fought off the 
horrible nausea of inertialessness, just 
as Rodebush and Cleveland had done. 
Again the ravening green macro-beams 
tore at the flying cruiser, again the 
mighty frames of the two space-ships 
shuddered sickeningly as Cleveland 
clamped on his tractor rod, again the 
highly dirigible torpedoes dashed out 
with their freights of death and destruc- 
tion. And again the Nevian shear-plane 
of force slashed at the Terrestrial’s trac- 
tor beam; but this time the mighty 
puller did not give way. Sparkling and 
spitting high-tension sparks, the plane 


34 


AMAZING STORIES 


bit deeply into the stubborn rod of en- 
ergy. Brighter, thicker, and longer 
grew the discharges as the gnawing 
plane drew more and more power; but 
in direct ratio to that power the rod 
grew larger, denser, and ever harder 
to cut. More and more vivid became 
the pyrotechnic display of electric bril- 
liance, until suddenly the entire tractor 
rod disappeared. At the same instant a 
blast of intolerable flame erupted from 
the ‘Boise’s’ flank and the whole enor- 
mous fabric of her shook and quivered 
under the force of a terrific detonation. 

“Randolph! I don’t see them! Are 
they attacking or running?” Rodebush 
demanded. He was the first to realize 
what had happened. 

R unning— fast!” 

“Just as well, perhaps, but get 
their line. Adlington !” 

“Here!” 

“Good! Was afraid you were gone 
— that was one of your bombs, wasn’t 
it?” 

“Yes. Well launched, just inside the 
screens. Don’t see how it could have 
detonated unless something hot and 
hard struck it in the tube ; it would 
need about that much time to explode. 
Good thing it didn’t go off any sooner, 
or none of us would have been here. 
As it is. Area six is pretty well done in, 
but the bulkheads held the damage to 
Six. What happened?” 

“^We don’t know, exactly. Both gen- 
erators on the tractor beam went out. 
At first, I thought that was all, but my 
neutralizers are dead and I don’t know 
wiiat else. When the G-4’s went out 
the fusion must have shorted the neu- 
tralizers. They would make a mess; it 
must have burned a hole down into 
number six tube. Cleveland and I vrill 
come down, and we’ll all look around.” 

Donning space-suits, the scientists let 
themselves into the damaged compart- 


ment through the emergency air-locks, 
and what a sight they saw! Both outer 
and inner walls of alloy armor had been 
blown away by the awful force of the 
explosion. Jagged plates hung awry; 
bent, twisted, and broken. The great 
torpedo tube, with all its intricate auto- 
matic machinery, had been driven vio- 
lently backward and lay piled in hid- 
eous confusion against the backing bulk- 
heads. Practically nothing remained 
whole in the entire compartment. 

“Nothing much we can do here,” 
Rodebush said finally, through his trans- 
mitter, “Let’s go see what number 
four generator room looks like.” 

That room, although not affected by 
the explosion from without, had been 
quite as effectively wrecked from with- 
in. It was still stiflingly hot; its air 
was still reeking with the stench of 
burning lubricant, insulation, and metal; 
its floor was half covered by a semi- 
molten mass of what had once been 
vital machinery. For with the burning 
out of the generator bars the energy of 
the disintegrating allotropic iron had 
had no outlet, and had Ijuilt up until 
it had broken through its insulation and 
in an irresistible flood of power had 
torn through all obstacles in its path of 
neutralization. 

“Hm-m-m. Should have had an au- 
tomatic shut-ofi — one detail we over- 
looked,” Rodebush mused. “The elec- 
tricians can rebuild this stuff here, 
though— that hole in the hull is some- 
thing else again.” 

“I’ll say it’s something else,” the 
grizzled Chief Engineer agreed. “She’s 
lost all her spherical strength — anchor- 
ing a tractor with this ship now would 
turn her inside out. Back to the near- 
est Triplanetary shop for us, I would 
say.” 

“Come again. Chief!” Cleveland ad- 
vised the engineer. “None of us would 
live long enough to get there. We 




can’t travel inertialess until the repairs 
are made, so if they can’t be made with- 
out very much traveling, it’s just too 
bad.” 

“I don’t see how we could support 
our jacks ...” The engineer paused, 
then went on. “If you can’t give me 
Mars or Tellus, how about some other 
planet? I don’t care about atmosphere, 
or about anything but mass. I can 
stiffen her up in three or four days 
if I can sit down on something heavy 
enough to hold our jacks and presses; 
but if we have to rig up space-cradles, 
around the ship herself it’ll take a long 
time — ^months, probably. Haven’t got a 
spare planet on hand, have you?” 


TRIPIANETW'»> 

'* ’ forbid 


E might have, at that,” Rode- 
surprising answer. 


“W/ 

» r bush made 
“A couple of seconds before we engaged 
we were heading toward a sun with at 
least two planets. I was just getting 
ready to dodge them when we cut the 
neutralizers, so they should be fairly 
close somewhere — yes, there’s the sun, 
right over there. Rather pale and small; 
but it’s close, comparatively speaking. 
We’ll go back up into the control room 
and find out about the planets.” 

The strange sun was found to have 
three large and easily located children, 
and observation showed that the crip- 
pled space-ship could reach the nearest 
of these in about five days. Power was 
therefore fed to the driving projectors, 
and each scientist, electrician, and me- 
chanic bent to the task of repairing the 
ruined generators ; rebuilding them to 
handle any load which the converters 
could possibly put upon them. For two 
days the “Boise” drove on; then her 
acceleration was reversed, and finally a 


lanmn^ ^ _ 

ding, soii^dl^^^fi^^'^orld. 

It was^ Tth, and of 

a somewr^^H^h^al^favitation. Al- 
though its j|,,flimate ^was bitterly cold, 
even in its short daytime, it supported 
a luxuriant but outlandish vegetation. 
Its atmosphere, while rich enough in 
oxygen and not really poisonous, was 
so rank with indescribably fetid vapors 
as to be scarcely breatheable. 

But these things bothered the engineers 
not at all. Paying no attention to temper- 
ature or to scenery and without waiting 
for chemical analysis of the air, the 
space-suited mechanics leaped to their 
tasks; and in only a little more time 
than had been mentioned by the chief 
engineer the hull and giant frame of 
the supership were as staunch as of 
yore. 

“All right, Skipper!” came finally 
the welcome word. “You might try her 
out with a fast hop around this world 
before you shove off in earnest.” 

Under the fierce blast of her pro- 
jectors the vessel leaped ahead, and time 
after time, as Rodebush hurled her mass 
upon tractor beam or pressor, the engi- 
neers sought in vain for any sign of 
weakness. The strange planet half gir- 
dled and the severest tests passed flaw- 
lessly, Rodebush reached for his neu- 
tralizer switches. Reached and paused, 
dumfounded, for a brilliant purple light 
had sprung into being upon his panel 
and a bell rang out insistently. 

“What the blue blazes!” Rodebush 
shot out an exploring beam along the 
detector line and gasped. He stared, 
mouth open, then yelled: 

“Roger is here, rebuilding his plan- 
etoid! STATIONS ALL!" 


End of Part III 


36 


^eril (lAmong 

the Drivers 

This is an ant story. We have, in the past, had some very remarkable 
productions treating of this very wonderful insect of which so much and 
yet so little is known. But it is fair to say that our author shows that he is 
the possessor of a fund of knowledge concerning these strange little beings, 
which forms the backbone of a delightful story full of human nature. Com- 
parisons are odious, the proverb says, but we certainly put this story among 
the very best of its type, and that type as the reader will find, proves, in this 
case at least, a very interesting one. 

By BOB OLSEN 

Illustrated by MOREY 


CHAPTER I 

The Girl Who Craved Excitement 

P ANTING and wheezing from its 
battle with the tricky currents of 
the Kuanza River, the stern- 
wheel steamer nudged against 
the rickety wharf at Mrokamba. 
Without waiting for the hawser to be 
made fast, one of the passengers mount- 
ed the rotten gunwale and leaped nimbly 
ashore. 

Anyone familiar with the “Who’s 
Who” of polodom would have recog- 
nized the stalwart build and aristocratic 
features of this eager young man; and 
would have wondered why Gordon 
Cabot, the hard-riding, seven-goal back 
of the Santa Barbara four, had forsaken 
his luxurious Montecito estate in the 
midst of the California polo season to 
visit this execrable fly-speck on the map 
of West Africa. 

His chestnut eyes gleaming with alert 
interest, Cabot gazed about him. All 
he could see of Mrokamba was a hud- 


dle of conical native huts and palm- 
thatched bungalows inclosed within a 
boma or corral. Overgrown with cadav- 
erous fungus, stifling in the strangle hold 
of snaky creepers, the barricade seemed 
ready to give up its stubborn but hope- 
less struggle against the inexorable 
forces of the jungle. 

The atmosphere was sweltering. Over 
the river hung a miasmic mist, pun- 
gently flavored with the sickening honey- 
suckle fragrance of pawpaw blossoms. 
Combined with the suffocating heat and 
oppressive humidity, the earthly smells 
of precocious vegetation suggested to 
Gordon the interior of a greenhouse. 

From somewhere in the bush came 
a weird, fearful call, almost human in 
timbre. 

“What was that?” Cabot whispered to 
the captain of the steamer, who had 
joined him on the wharf. 

“Elephant,” was the reply. “Sounds 
like she’s bein’ driven by a mess of 
ants.” 

“Ants?” Cabot exclaimed. “An ele- 
phant being driven by ants? That’s a 


37 



The heavy btirden put a severe strain on his unpracticed flying muscles, but 
by dint of strenuous exertion he managed to keep aloft. 



38 


AMAZING STORIES 


good one.” With a laugh he added, 
“Your name doesn’t happen to be Baron 
Munchausen, does it?” 

“Course not. But speakin’ of noble- 
men, there was a chap named Lord Dil- 
lingham, which came to Africa in the 
nineties or thereabouts. He was a heavy 
drinker, so they say. One day, while on 
a spree, he was foolish enough to lie 
down in the brush for a bit of a nap. 
He never woke up, he didn’t. The ants 
came across him and ate him alive, so 
the story goes. Anyhow, they found 
his skeleton next morning. Every speck 
of meat was picked clean from his bones. 
It was completely dressed, the skeleton 
was. Not a thread of the clothing had 
been disturbed. There wasn’t even so 
much as a scratch on his boots or his 
helmet.” ■ 

“I’ve heard yarns like that before,” 
Cabot told him. “But an elephant — a 
full-grown, perfectly sober elephant — 
surely you don’t expect me to be- 
lieve ” 

He was interrupted by a rich, vibrant 
voice. Though he had not heard it for 
many months, he recognized it instantly. 
No other voice in the world could sound 
so sweet to his ears as that of Diana 
Freeland. 

“Gordon! You darling!” 

Like a living projectile of pink and 
gold she sped to him, throwing her 
arms around his neck, covering his face 
with kisses, and murmuring endearing 
phrases in his blushing ears. 

As soon as he could recover'from the 
effects of her exuberant greeting, Gor- 
don held her off at arm’s length and 
said: “Please stand still for a second 
so I can get a good look at you.” 

W HAT he saw was enough to de- 
light any male human being. 
Figure: Short, slender and straight- 
limbed, with just the right degree of 
fullness in the places where womanly 


curves are indicated. Hair : Naturally 
blond, naturally luxuriant, naturally 
curly. Gordon’s own description: “Twist- 
ed skeins spun from goldenrod blos- 
soms.” Eyes : Incredibly large. In- 
credibly blue. Fringed with lashes of 
incredible length. Skin: Devoid of cos- 
metics, yet indescribably fair. By some 
magic charm, Diana had prevented the 
tropic sun and the desert winds from 
marring her arbutus-petal complexion. 

Giving her shoulders a playful shake, 
Gordon declared: “Diana, you are the 
most adorable creature I have ever seen 
in my life. You sure look good to me.” 

“You wouldn’t fool a poor goil, would 
you?” she smiled. “When it comes to 
looks, you’re not so bad on the eyes 
yourself, lover of mine.” And she held 
up her full lips for another kiss. The 
ceremony completed, she went on: “Now 
that’s settled, suppose we take a stroll 
up to the exclusive residential section of 
our metropolis, I want you to meet 
Doctor Hermann Thurston. Perhaps 
you have heard of him. He was a great 
friend of my father’s, you know.” 

Doctor Thurston’s name was not fa- 
miliar to Cabot, but he knew a great 
deal about Diana’s father. 

Embodying a rare blending of schol- 
arly attainments and insatiable craving 
for excitement, Walter Freeland had 
deserted his post as Professor of En- 
tomology in a New England university 
for the more glamorous work of ex- 
ploring perilous regions in out-of-the- 
way corners of the globe. 

When Diana was fifteen her mother 
died. Thereafter, she clung to her fa- 
ther’s coat-tails, almost refusing to let 
him put of her sight. Like many peo- 
ple with small bodies, she had an excep- 
tionally strong will. She was stubborn. 
She was determined. She was accus- 
tomed to having her own way. When 
she insisted on accompanying her dis- 
tinguished father on his adventurous 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


39 


expeditions, there was nothing for him 
to do but consent. Four years later 
Walter Freeland died from the effects 
of a cobra bite, and Diana was an 
orphan. 

Instead of discouraging her zest for 
excitement, her father’s untimely death 
seemed only to fan the fires of her rest- 
lessness, driving her recklessly into peri- 
lous places and precarious situations. 

She was twenty-two when Gordon 
first met her. Cruising along the coast 
of Lower California in his father’s 
yacht, he had spied a disabled seaplane 
drifting in the choppy waters of Vis- 
caino Bay. Its sole occupant was Diana 
Freeland. Delirious with thirst, her 
frail body wasted from hunger and ex- 
posure, she was in a serious plight when 
Gordon rescued her and rushed her to 
a hospital in San Diego. 

He fell in love with her, of course. 
Nothing remarkable about that. Falling 
in love with Diana was like the whoop- 
ing cough — every man who came near 
her was sure to catch it. The unusual 
thing was that Diana fell for Gordon — 
fell for him hard, in fact — but not quite 
hard enough to induce her to abandon 
her adventuring proclivities. 

F or several months after he became 
engaged to her, Gordon tried hard to 
keep pace with Diana in her frantic 
quest for thrills. When she swam the 
Hellespont, Gordon, who could swim 
far hetter than she could, insisted on 
paddling along beside her. When she 
piloted her airplane within a few feet 
of Kilauea’s seething firepit, Gordon 
was in the front seat cranking a motion 
picture camera. When she was kidnaped 
by Chinese bandits, it was Gordon who 
provided die ransom money and risked 
his own liberty in bringing her back to 
civilization. 

After each of these foolhardy esca- 
pades he tried to persuade her to marry 


him and return with him to his Califor- 
nia estate. Always her answer was the 
same: “Please be patient with me, sweet- 
heart. I’m not quite ready to settle 
down yet. But don’t despair. One of 
these fine days I’ll get completely fed up 
on excitement and, when that liaj^iens, 
I fwomise you that I shall become the 
most home-loving wife you ever had.” 

When he persisted in his pleading she 
said: “Listen, you sweet thing, you! 
Much as I have enjoyed you, I am not 
going to have you tagging around with 
me any more. To-morrow you are going 
to sail straight back to California, and 
you must stay there until I come to you 
or ask you to come to me. And if that 
isn’t satisfactory to you. I’m afraid I 

shall reluctantly be compelled to ” 

She had Gordon's ring as far as the 
iniddle joint of her finger when he 
grabbed her hand and laughed, “Never 
mind telling me what you are going to 
do if I disobey. I’m shoving off right 
now for California.” 

Three months passed — months which 
for Gordon were pregnant with anxiety 
and yearning. Then the thing for which 
he had waited so longingly came. It was 
a cablegram from Africa and it read 
as follows: 

“IF YOU FEEL LIKE SEEING 
WOMAN WHO LOVES YOU 
COME QUICKLY TO MRO- 
KAMBA ANGOLA AFRICA. 

DIANA.” 

CHAPTER II 

A Preposterous Plan 

W ITH Diana leading the way, they 
walked along a path fringed with 
brilliantly hued aloes to a bun- 
galow which was a little bit less decrepit 
than its neighbors. 

Doctor Tliurston was deep-chested and 


40 


AMAZING STORIES 


stoop-shouldered. Bald was his large 
head, glistening like polished bronze. 
Bulging were his eyes which peered 
through thick, concave glasses with an 
expression of perpetual surprise. 

After completing the formalities of 
presentation, Diana explained, “Doctor 
Thurston is hopelessly old-fashioned, 
Gordon. He still retains some quaint, 
Victorian ideas. One of them is that no 
woman should be allowed to take any im- 
portant step without obtaining consent 
of her nearest male relative. Isn’t he 
droll?” 

Gordon tried to think of a fitting re- 
sponse but without success. Consequent- 
ly he made a non-committal grimace and 
shrugged his shoulders. 

“He’s really a honey, though, in spite 
of his antiquated notions,” Diana went 
on. “You see, I need his help to carry 
out a wonderful new plan of mine. If it 
succeeds it will be the greatest adventure 
that any human being has ever experi- 
enced. And Nunkey Hermann happens 
to be the only person on earth who 
can make it a success. He has half 
promised to help me, but he seems to 
think I am not responsible for my own 
acts; and he doesn’t like to assume full 
responsibility for them himself. I told 
him, of course, that I have no living 
male relatives. Then he reminded me 
that I was engaged to be married. It 
was at this suggestion that I sent for 
you.” 

Gordon’s face must have betrayed his 
disappointment, for she doubled up her 
small fist and gave him a playful but 
stinging jab on the left side of his jaw. 

“Don’t look so glum, lover of mine. 
Can’t you understand that I wouldn’t 
have sent for you if I wasn’t madly 
in love with you? When Uncle Her- 
mann made the suggestion I was so de- 
lighted that I kissed him on his shiny, 
bald pate — didn’t I, Nunkey?” 

Thurston grinned and nodded. 


“But Diana, darling,” Gordon pro- 
tested. “How can you blame me for 
being disappointed? When I got your 
cable I thought it meant you were at 
last ready to marry me. Here I rushed 
over land and sea only to find that it 
is just another one of those foolhardy 
stunts of yours.” 

“Please, Gordon,” she coaxed as she 
clung affectionately to his arm. “Please 
don’t be pouty. Wait at least until you 
hear what my plan is. Who knows? 
Perhaps this is destined to be the thrill 
to end all thrills. Maybe it will make 
me so washed up on adventure that I 
shall be tickled to death to spend the 
rest of my days lolling languidly in your 
Monticito patio.” 

“Do you really mean it?” Gordon 
cried eagerly. “Do you mean that, after 
you have completed this new stunt of 
yours, whatever it is, you will be ready 
to marry me and settle down?” 

“Perhaps,” was her non-committal 
response. “I hate to make promises so 
far ahead. But if this venture turns 
out to be half as exciting as I expect 
it to be, I think that patio of yours is 
going to look mighty good to me after it 
is all over.” 

“In that case,” he said, turning to 
Doctor Thurston, “I give my consent to 
Diana’s proposition.” 

Thurston blinked and said, “Do you 
not think you should first find out the 
nature of your fiancee’s plan?” 

“No, Doctor. That isn’t at all neces- 
sary. When you know Diana as well as 
I do you will understand this: Once 
she gets an idea in that delectable head 
of hers she will find some way to carry 
it out in spite of everything. I’ve 
learned that it is best to agree first and 
get the details afterward.” 

“You darling!” Diana' exclaimed as 
she leaned over and kissed the tip of 
his ear. Then to Doctor Thurston she 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


41 


said proudly, “Do you blame me for 
loving this man?” 

The scientist didn’t reply. He merely 
shook his head as if the ways of mod- 
ern youth were too incongruous for 
him to understand. 

“Well,” Gordon laughed. “Suppose 
you tell me about the great adventure 
to end all adventures.” 

“O. K.” Diana responded. “I’ll start 
by reminding you of something you al- 
ready know : My father was a very ver- 
satile man. He accomplished some very 
outstanding things along several differ- 
ent lines. But the subject that inter- 
ested him most of all was myrmecology.” 

“Myrmecology ?” Gordon echoed. 
“What in the name of confusion is 
that?” 

Gravely she informed him that myr- 
niecology was the science of ants. 

“■pxAD had an admiration for ants 

J—^that bordered almost on venera- 
tion,” she explained. “He devoted the 
major part of his life to studying the 
Ant People, as he used to call them. 
I often heard him say that in the world 
of insects the ants occupy the same dom- 
inant position that men do in the realm 
of mammals.” 

“Yes, I know all that,” Gordon as- 
sured her. “I’ve read most of your 
father’s works on popular science.” 

“Naturally Dad found out a lot about 
ants,” Diana continued. “But he never 
was satisfied. He was always deplor- 
ing the limitations of ordinary observa- 
tion. He likened himself to a man from 
Mars soaring over New York in a 
rocket ship and gazing at the city and 
its inhabitants through a telescope. The 
Martian would be able to learn some- 
thing about the earth-people, to be sure, 
but the information he could acquire in 
that way would be very incomplete. Do 
you get the analogy?” 

“Not very clearly,” Gordon confessed. 


“Then let me amplify: Scientists like 
my Dad have studied insects from the 
outside. They have found out that, 
like human beings, the ant people make 
roads and bridges and tunnels, that they 
domesticate other creatures, that they 
make slaves of alien ants, that they wage 
wars, that they cultivate crops and use 
tools and do other things that we like 
to think are exclusively human. But 
it stands to reason that this information 
— jistounding as it may seem — ^must be 
very incomplete. The only way to study 
these interesting creatures thoroughly is 
to become an ant and to live among 
them. And that’s precisely what I in- 
tend ta do!" 

“What!” Gordon ejaculated. “You 
intend to become an ant? Surely you 
must be joking— or else ” 

“No. I’m not insane and I’m not 
joking. I’ll admit that the idea sounds 
crazy. Nevertheless I believe it is per- 
fectly feasible and Uncle Hermann 
agrees with me.” 

Gordon looked appealingly at Doctor 
Thurston, hoping for a denial; but the 
elderly scientist disappointed him. In- 
stead, he declared, “Diana's statements 
are substantially correct, Mr. Cabot. Not 
that I approve of her plan, you under- 
stand. My contention is that it is not 
right for a young and beautiful girl like 
Diana to risk her precious life in an 
undertaking which promises to be so 
egregiously hazardous. But, so far as 
the enterprise itself is concerned, you 
may rest assured that it is entirely feas- 
ible.” 

“You mean that it is posoiHe for 
Diana to become an ant?” 

Thurston nodded. 

“Why the idea is utterly preposter- 
ous!” Gordon exclaimed. 

“Many valid concepts are preposter- 
ous — to those who do not understand 
them fully.” 

“Then you really are serious? You 


42 


AMAZING STORIES 


actually believe it possible to convert a 
human being into a bug?” 

“It isn’t a question of believing. I 
know. And the reason I am so positive 
it can be accomplished is that I have 
already succeeded in doing it. I my- 
self can transfer the ego or conscious- 
ness of a human being into the body 
of any animal or insect.” 

O BSERVING the look of incredulity 
on Cabot’s face, Doctor Thurston 
added, “Evidently you are not familiar 
with the science of metempsychosis.” 

“I beg your pardon.” 

The scientist repeated, “Perhaps you 
are not familiar with metempsychosis.” 

“Familiar with it?” Cabot jested. “I’m 
not even aware of its existence. Didn’t 
know there was such a word in the 
dictionary as met — whatever you call 
it.” 

“Metempsychosis,” Thurston reiter- 
ated. “That is the scientific term for 
something I am sure you have heard of 
many, many times. There are countless 
references to it in the literature of my- 
thology, folk-lore, history, philosophy 
and even in the Scriptures. Perhaps 
you will recognize it more readily by 
its more popular name — transmigration 
of souls. You know of course that 
transmigration occupied very important 
places in the religious and philosophical 
beliefs of the ancient Egyptians and 
many other people who were highly de- 
veloped intellectually. I assume that 
you have heard o€ Pythagoras.” 

“You mean the fellow who invented 
the proposition about the square on the 
hypothenuse of a right angle triangle 
being equal to the sum of the Squares 
on the two legs? Guess I ought to know 
about him. I sure sweated over his 
theorem when I was studying geomc- 
try.” 

“Pythagoras was a great mathemati- 
cian,” Thurston rejoined, "but he was 


even more famous as a philosopher, 
scientist and profound thinker. He be- 
lieved in transmigration of souls — in 
fact the name of Pythagoras is insepar- 
ably allied with the science of metem- 
psychosis. Though he lived in the sixth 
century B. C. he seems to have known a 
great deal more than many of the so- 
called scientists of today. Plato, an- 
other great intellectual genius, who died 
in 34B B. C., also believed in metem- 
psychosis.” 

“Is that a fact,” Cabot doubted. 

“Indeed it is. As I intimated before, 
the literature of practically all cultured 
people is full of references to transmi- 
gration. Two classic examples are the 
story of Circe, who turned her visitors 
into hogs, and the scriptural account 
of the evil spirit which was driven out 
of a man and into a herd of swine.” 

“But surely,” Gordon protested, “sure- 
ly you do not mean to imply that these 
examples you just cited were scientific 
facts. Weren’t they more in the nature 
of fables and fairy tales?” 

“Perhaps,” th6 older man replied. 
“But, to the uninitiated, the wonders of 
modern science are just as hard to be- 
lieve as fairy tales — perhaps more so. 
If you reflect a trifle, you will observe 
that practically all of the conceptions of 
mythology and folk-lore — which used to 
be regarded as fantastic and absurd — 
have been realized or surpassed by mod- 
em inventions. Sometimes I wonder 
if the writers of ancient times did not 
know more about sdence than we do to- 
day. In the case of metempsychosis, 
that seems most likely.” 

Diana cut into the two-sided conversa- 
tion with “Unde Hermann, why don’t 
you show Gordon your transmigrating 
machines?” 

“I was just about to make that very 
suggestion,” the scientist assured her. 

He led the way to a hut in the rear 
of his bungalow. Hand in hand, like 


/ 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


43 


two small children, Gordon and Diana 
followed him. 

As Thurston unlocked the door and 
revealed a bewildering conglomeration 
of tubes and coils and fantastically 
shaped contrivances, he said proudly, 
“Considering our remote location, I have 
been able to fit out an excellent labora- 
tory. I was fortunate enough to dis- 
cover a small waterfall only a short dis- 
tance from here, where I installed a 
turbine and generator which provides 
all the electric current I require for my 
experiments.” 

P LACING his hand affectionately on 
an object shaped like an enormous 
casket, he announced, “This is one of 
my metempsychosis machines. It is 
suitable for large animals, such as dogs, 
lions and human beings. You will notice 
that there is a door at this end. With 
these clamps I can seal the cabinet her- 
metically. In order to give you an idea 
how it works I am going to leave it 
open. Just stand in front of the open- 
ing and notice what happens when I 
turn on the current.” 

He threw a switch and a queer mech- 
anism within the cabinet began to 
drone. It emitted a weird whine which 
grew higher arid higher in pitch until 
it faded away to silence. 

Gordon peered into the casket. The 
air within seemed to be quivering sound- 
lessly, like heat waves over a red hot 
stove. 

“Do you feel anything?” Thurston 
asked him. 

“Yes, I do. A very peculiar sensa- 
tion. I seem to be glowing all over. 
It’s a sort .of warmth. Not heat you 
understand — just a wonderful, raptur- 
ous warmth.” 

Gordon stepped closer to the opening 
of the cabinet. 

With a quick motion. Doctor Thurs- 
ton snapped off the switch. 


“Why did you do that?” Cabot de- 
manded. “Why didn’t you leave it on? 
I was getting a kick out of it.” 

“Rather a dangerous kick if it had 
continued much longer,” Thurston smiled 
mirthlessly. “Even at a distance, those 
vibrations are powerful enough to dis- 
lodge your soul from your body.” 

“Perhaps I’d enjoy the experience,” 
Gordon jested. “Is that all there is to 
your transmigrating machine?” 

Thurston nodded. 

“Seems simple enough,” the young 
man went on. “What’s the principle 
that makes it work?” 

“It depends on the same principle that 
is inherent in practically all forces, 
namely vibration.” 

“Vibration?” Gordon echoed. 

“Yes. Vibration. I assume you know 
that nearly all manifestations such as 
sound, radio, heat, light. X-rays and 
electricity are dependent on vibrations 
of different kinds, speeds and frequen- 
cies.” 

“Sure!” Cabot said. “I know that 
the forces you mention all travel in 
waves. Let me see. Doesn't light travel 
at the rate of one hundred and eighty- 
six million miles per second?” 

“You are exaggerating slightly,” 
Thurston laughed. “The speed of light 
is approximately one hundred and eighty- 
six thotisand, not so many million miles 
per second. But that is quite speedy 
enough for ordinary purposes.” 

“What about radio waves?” Gordon 
asked. “Don’t they travel at the same 
speed as light waves?” 

“That is correct. But there is a vast 
gap between radio waves and visible 
light rays. Compared to light waves, ra- 
dio waves are extremely long. They 
range from a few centimeters to several 
thousand meters in length, as meas- 
ured from the crest of one wave to the 
crest of the next one. Nevertheless, be- 
cause of the enormous speed at which 


44 


AMAZING STORIES 


they travel, their rate of vibration is of 
a very high frequency.” 

“Does that have anything to do 
with your machine?” Gordon in^ 
quired. 

“Not directly, except that the vibra- 
tions produced in my metempsychosis 
machine occupy a position between the 
frequencies of radio waves and sound 
waves. You know of course that sound 
waves are altogether different from 
radio and light waves.” 

“Naturally.” 

“Light waves vibrate transversely,” 
the scientist went on. “Sound waves 
vibrate longitudinally, by a series of 
compressions and expansions in the me- 
dium through which the sound travels. 
Compared to light, sound is an egre- 
gious slow-poke. It loafs along at the 
extremely slow speed of approximately 
five miles per second. This speed, as 
you know, varies with the temperature 
and density of the atmosphere. But I 
fear I am boring you with this technical 
explanation.” 

“Not at all,” Gordon assured him. 
“On the contrary, I find it extremely 
interesting. Nevertheless, I would like 
to learn more about your transmigrating 
machine.” 

“I was leading up to that. As I said 
before, the vibrations produced by my 
machine have frequencies which come 
between the highest audible sound and 
the longest radio wave. Please don’t 
infer from what I say that these vibra- 
tions arp like either fast sound waves 
or slow radio waves. They really are 
quite different from any other kind of 
wave — so different in fact that I have 
given them a special designation, namely 
metempsychosis waves. They have the 
unique property of being able to jar 
loose the soul, spirit, ego, or whatever 
you wish to call the consciousness of an 
animal, and to separate this spirit from 
the physical body. That’s all there is 


to my machine except for a simple me- 
chanical contrivance for conveying the 
spiritual substance from the body of one 
animal into that of another creature.” 

“Would you mind explaining that part 
of the process ?” 

“Gladly. You see the spirit substance, 
being considerably lighter than air, tends 
to rise. You will notice that there is a 
tube leading from the cabinet at the 
point where it is highest. It can be 
coupled to any of these other cabinets. 
I have several of them here, of varying 
sizes. Inside each of them is an intake 
tube equipped with a flexible cap. This 
is fitted over the head of the animal or 
insect which is to receive the spirit. Like 
other forces, this spiritual substance fol- 
lows the path of least resistance. It 
enters the new body through the mouth, 
nostrils, ears and other cavities.” 

“And how do you bring your sub- 
jects back to consciousness again?” 

Simply by reversing the transmigrat- 
ing device, starting it fast and slowing 
it down" gradually. By the time the vi- 
brations have reached the lowest rate 
of fluctuation the subject has awakened, 
none the worse for the experience.” 

“Except that it has a borrowed soul,” 
Cabot amended. 

“Yes, of course — a borrowed soul 
which I can return to its rightful owner 
whenever I desire.” 

“Which may be highly important to 
the rightful owner of the soul,” Gordon 
laughed. Then, turning to Diana, he 
said, “What I cannot understand, my 
dear, is why you want to try this pre- 
posterous plan of yours on an ant. If 
you are looking for adventure, why 
don’t you have yoursdf turned into a 
perfectly nice lion or tiger or some such 
beast as that?” 

D ON’T be silly,” Diana admonished 
him. “In the first place, there 
are no tigers in Africa and it would be 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


45 


ridiculous to import one here from 
India. And as for lions — their lives 
arc altogether too dull and uninterest- 
ing.” 

“But aren’t the lions the lords of the 
jungle?” 

“Lord no! Lions don’t even live in 
the jungle — they spend their uneventful 
lives in the open veldt. And as for 
being kings or lords — that is utterly 
ridiculous. The real lords of the jungle 
— or rather of the bush, as we call it 
here in Africa — are the ants. When 
they are on the warpath there isn’t a 
single creature, from a spider to an 
elephant, that dares to stand in their 
way. And when I make that assertion, 
I don’t need to exclude the egotistical 
biped who calls himself homo sapiens, 
with the accent on the sap!” 

What could Gordon say in reply to 
that? Exactly what he did say: Noth- 
ing. 

CHAPTER III 
An Insect Invasion 

I 

O NCE it was definitely decided 
that Diana was to masquerade 
as an ant for an indefinite pe- 
riod, Gordon urged an immediate start. 
As he expressed it, he wanted her to 
get it out of her system as quickly as 
possible. He learned, however, that it 
was not feasible to begin immediately. 
One very important matter had to be 
attended to first. It was necessary for 
Doctor Thurston to collect a number of 
live ants, from which to choose the 
one individual that was to be the recep- 
tacle for Diana’s soul. 

The scientist emphasized the care 
which must be taken in making this se- 
lection. The insect chosen must be 
strong and healthy, of course, but, more 
important than that, it had to possess 
exactly the right kind of odor. He ex- 


plained that each species of ant, each 
family and each individual had its own 
distinctive smell. By scent alone, 
friends are distinguished from enemies. 
Should an ant, even if it belongs to the 
same species, be placed in a colony to 
which it does not belong, it would be 
torn to pieces instantly. 

Though the bush surrounding the vil- 
lage of Mrokamba was heavily infested 
with ants, it took the doctor several days 
to find any that exactly fitted the re- 
quirements. 

Diana insisted that she must be a 
Driver Ant first. 

“The Drivers are the most primitive 
of the Ant People,” she explained. 
“They are not as smart as the Slave 
Makers nor as civilized as the Farmer 
Ants, but they live much more adven- 
turous lives, and adventure is the most- 
est thing I don’t want nothing else but. 
Later on I may decide to try living 
among the more highly developed races 
of ants.” 

“Heaven forbid!” was Gordon’s 
prayer. 

Since the Drivers have an aversion 
for direct sunlight, Thurston had to do 
most of his hunting with the aid of a 
flashlight at night. He was too brush- 
wise to wander very far away from the 
vill^tge after sundown. 

But one evening — ^the fifth one after 
Gordon’s arrival— Mrokamba became the 
scene of an amazing spectacle. It started 
with an uneasy stirring in the bush. The 
usual noises of the jungle became louder 
and more frequent. Then, without fur- 
ther warning, a host of animals came 
stampeding through the bush a short 
distance from the settlement. They 
were of all sizes and descriptions. Leop- 
ards and umpala gazelles, lions and ku- 
dus, ran side by side, paying no atten- 
tion to each other in their mad rush to 
escape from some terrible scourge that 
pursued them all. 


46 


AMAZING STORIES 


“What can be the matter?” Gordon 
asked Doctor Thurston. “Those beasts 
behave just like animals in America do 
when a forest fire breaks out.” 

“Th^ are running away from some- 
thing they fear worse than fire,” the 
scientist told him. 

“What can that be?” 

“The ants! The Driver Ants! They 
are coming! Can’t you hear them?” 

Gordon listened. From the distance 
came a faint, rustling noise. It sounded 
like a sackful of peanut shells being 
shaken up and down. As the sound be- 
came louder he noticed that it was min- 
gled with a faint piping, as if many 
thousands of tiny whistles were being 
blown at once. 

Thurston dashed into his cabin, emerg- 
ing a few minutes later clad in high 
boots, with whipcord breeches, khaki 
shirt, a beekeeper’s veil and thick gaunt- 
lets. Over his shoulder was slung a 
specimen case. He was carrying a large 
trowel in his hand. 

“^T^HIS is luck!” he shouted to Gor- 

J. don. “Now I can catch all the ants 
I need. You had better hurry to your 
room and climb into bed. Perhaps you 
noticed that all four legs of your bed 
are standing in pans full of vinegar. 
The netting is close mesh, so the ants 
can’t get through it if they drop down 
from the ceiling. But be very careful 
not to let any of the bed-clothes trail 
to the floor. And don’t try to get out 
of bed, no matter what happens. If you 
take all these precautions you will be 
reasonably safe.” 

Gordon didn’t like the way he empha- 
sized the word “reasonably.” 

“What about Diana?” he demanded. 

“I’ve warned her already. She must 
be in bed by this toe.” 

To make sure, Cabot knocked on 
Diana’s door. 


“Come in, Gordon!” she sang out 
musically, 

“Are you all right, darling?” he said 
as he opened the door just enough to 
stick his nose inside. 

“Yes, my love. I’m perfectly O. K. 
Come here and kiss me good-night. Then 
you had better climb into your little 
beddy-beddy before the naughty bugs 
eat you up.” 

Gordon wasn’t satisfied with one good- 
night kiss. He insisted on taking three. 
In the midst of the last one he felt a 
sharp pain in his ankle. Looking down, 
he saw a thin black line extending from 
his foot to the door. A dozen of the 
tiny creatures were already gnawing 
busily at his leg. He brushed them off 
and departed hastily, calling over his 
shoulder, “Good-night, beloved! You 
seem to have a very competent gang of 
chaperons. See you in the morning!” 

He reached his room a few inches 
ahead of a wave of black squirming 
bodies which seemed to flow like a liv- 
ing river across the threshold. 

With a sigh of relief he hopped into 
his bed and drew the netting tight behind 
him. Then, with a suddenness that was 
typical of the tropics, the blanket of 
night quenched the brief twilight and 
the room was plunged into darkness. 
Breathing a prayer of thanks for Doc- 
tor Thurston’s electric power plant, Gor- 
don switched on his bed-light and peered 
through the curtains. 

Already the floor was covered with a 
moving carpet of insects. So tightly 
were they crowded together that he could 
not see so much as a single patch of 
yellow matting between their quivering 
bodies. He looked around the room and 
discovered that the ceiling and the walls 
were being rapidly overrun by the ants. 
Through every hole and crevice they 
poured endlessly. 

Soon there were noises and commo- 
tions which told eloquently of tragedies 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


47 


being enacted in every part of the house. 

During the few days he had lived in 
Africa Gordon had, of course, learned 
that all human dwellings are heavily in- 
fested by vermin of every description. 
Enormous cockroaches, great hairy spi- 
ders, ferocious looking caterpillars, small 
animals resembling rats — even snakes 
and scorpions inhabited in large numbers 
the thatched roofs and the spaces be- 
tween the walls. These unwelcome guests 
defied all efforts of their human hosts 
to evict them — ^that is, until the Drivers 
arrived. Then they all tried to leave 
at once. But very few of them suc- 
ceeded. 

From the frantic scampering and from 
the death cries which he heard all about 
him, Gordon knew that hundreds of 
creatures were being eaten alive by those 
ruthless Huns of the insect world. Most 
of the murders were committed beyond 
his range of vision, but he witnessed 
one tragedy which gave him a clear idea 
of how the Drivers hunted and devoured 
their victims. 

H earing a hissing noise that was 
so loild and insistent that it could 
be heard above the tumult, Gordon 
looked up just in time to see what 
looked like a slender rubber hose push 
itself out from the roof. For an in- 
stant it dangled there, then it dropped. 
It Ijinded with a plop on a circular 
table which stood in the middle of the 
room — ^luckily for Mr. Snake. Luckily 
— at least for a few minutes. There were 
no ants on the table and for a while it 
looked as if the small reptile was safe. 
But not for very lor^. 

The inexorable hunters must have 
scented the creature, for they soon began 
to swarm up over a chair which stood 
with its back but a few inches from the 
table top. The snake was crafty enough 
to remain on the table. 

But the ants were not to be so easily 


thwarted. They crowded along the back 
of the chair, searching for a place to 
cross over to their quarry. Then Gor- 
don beheld an amazing thing. Clinging 
to each other’s bodies, the tiny bugs 
formed a living chain. Slowly it grew, 
swaying to and fro until the ant at the 
bottom end was able to clutch the edge 
of the table and hold fast. Thus was 
completed a bridge of insect bodies, 
across which thousands of the six-legged 
fighters rushed. 

In an instant the body of the snake 
was completely covered with them. Vain- 
ly it squirmed and lashed and hissed. 
Soon its terrific struggles ceased entirely 
and the ants settled down to the grim 
business of stripping every particle of 
flesh from its bones. At the end of a 
half hour there was nothing left of the 
snake but a skeleton, picked clean of 
eveiything that was edible. 

Gordon hated to think of what might 
have happened to Diana without the pro- 
tection of those four small pans of 
vinegar. Although he knew that the ants 
on the floor wete only a fraction of an 
inch thick, he had the feeling that if he 
ever stepped into that swirlfiig sea of 
black bodies he would sink out of sight 
completely. 

For some time he had been aware of 
a nauseating stench, but he had been too 
busy watching and listening to pay much 
attention to his olfactory sensations. 
Now he recognized the smell. It was 
the unspeakable odor of carrion. It 
came from the ants, and they smelled 
that way because they ate nothing but 
meat ! 

CHAPTER IV 
Preparations and Warnings 

W HEN Gordon awoke the fol- 
lowing morning he thought at 
first that the events of the 
previous evening had been just a horrible 


48 


AMAZMG STORIES 


nightmare. The Drivers had departed 
as mysteriously as they had come. Ex- 
cept for the moth-wings scattered over 
.the floor and the whitened bones of the 
snake on the table, there was no evidence 
that anything unusual had occurred. 

At the breakfast table there was much 
to talk about. 

Doctor Thurston beamed with enthu- 
siasm. 

“What a blessing these Army Ants 
are,” he glowed. 

“Blessing?” Gordon exclaimed. “You 
call those horrible creatures a blessing?” 

“Certainly. The natives call them 
‘Ants of Visitation.’ They look for- 
ward to the periodic visits of these in- 
trepid fighters.” 

“The natives must be crazy,” was 
Gordon’s comment. * 

“Not at all. As you know, our dwell- 
ings are infested by vermin of all sorts. 
Men have never found any way to get 
rid of them. But the Drivers do the 
job in a few hours. For a while at least 
we shall not be bothered by cockroaches, 
spiders, snakes or any other pests. The 
ants have either devoured them or driven 
them away.” 

“What about the ants themselves? I 
should think they would be worse pests 
than all the others put together.” 

'‘They would be if they outstayed 
their welcome. Fortunately they know 
the proper etiquette of calling. When 
their mission has been fulfilled they 
move out, bag and baggage.” 

“So I observe. By the way, Diana, 
how did you make out last night?” 

“Fine,” she assured him. “Weren’t 
those ants glorious, though?” 

“Glorious?” he cried. “To me they 
were utterly disgusting. Surely, after 
what )mu saw and heard and smelled 
last night, you do not still want to be- 
come one of those atrocious creatures?” 

“Even more than ever,” she declared. 
“I think they were wonderful.” Turn- 


ing to Thurston, she inquired : “By 
the way, Nunkey, what luck did you 
have with your hunting last night?” 

“Splendid luck,” he told her. “I se- 
cured several hundred very fine speci- 
mens belonging to all the different castes. 
You will have an excellent assortment 
from which to make your selection. Have 
you thought about what particular style 
of ant you would like to be?” 

“Are there so many different kinds?” 

“There are at least five distinct castes 
— all of them children of the same 
mother, yet differing so much in size 
and structure that they might easily be 
mistaken for insects of entirely different 
races.” 

“What are the different castes?” Gor- 
don inquired. 

To which Thurston replied: “The 
principal ones are the soldiers, who do 
most of the fighting; the workers, who 
carry the eggs, larvae, cocoons and sur- 
plus food supply ; the queen mother, who 
does nothing but lay eggs; the winged 
females, or virgin princesses; and the 
males, who are the least important of 
all. 

“Sort of necessary evils,” Gordon sug- 
gested. 

“They are not even necessary. Re- 
production can take place without them, 
though a better race always results when 
matings take place in the usual way. 
Once he has performed his only useful 
function, the male is allowed to shift for 
himself. He is so stupid that he never 
lives for more than a few hours after 
that.” 

“What about the females? They don’t 
live very long either, do they?” 

“Many of them perish, of course. But 
if a fertilized female succeeds in the 
precarious task of starting a colony, 
she can usually look forward to a long 
and prosperous life. It has been defi- 
nitely proved that queen ants sometimes 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


49 


live to be fifteen years old or more — a 
surprising age for an insect.” 

“T THINK I’d rather be a princess,” 
A Diana cut in. “As I understand it, 
they don’t have to work and they don’t 
have to fight. Also, they have wings 
and their eyesight is much better than 
that of the workers and soldiers. That’s 
true, isn’t it?” 

“Only partially. It is true that most 
virgin female ants have wings and can 
see very well. It happens that the Driv- 
ers (or Dorylii) are exceptions to this’ 
rule. All the workers and soldiers of 
this species are stone blind, you know. 
The females are also blind and they have 
only the merest vestiges of wings, 
so they cannot fly, either.” 

“Even so, I want to be a princess,” 
Diana persisted. 

“How about the greatly despised 
males?” Gordon wanted to know. 

“They can fly very well. Also, they 
have excellent eyesight — for obvious 
reasons. Why do you ask?” 

“I’ll tell you why. While we have 
been talking here, I have arrived at a 
momentous decision. If Diana refuses 
to reconsider — if she persists in going 
through with this outrageous plan of 
hers^I must insist on going with her.” 

“Oh !” Diana exclaimed. “Do you 
mean that?” 

“Absolutely, positively and emphati- 
cally!” was Gordon’s declaration. 

“You darling!” With one leap she 
was out of her chair and had her arms 
around his neck, upsetting a cup of 
coffee in his lap in her boisterous en- 
thusiasm- 

“We had better make haste,” the sci- 
entist warned them, “There isn’t a 
moment to spare. If there is anything 
either of you want to do before leaving — 
any last message to write, or anything 
like that — ^you had better do it at once..” 


“No final rites for me,” Diana punned. 
“How about you, Gordon?” 

“I’ll just dash off a few lines to Dad. 
It will take me only a minute or two.” 

“O. K.,” said Diana. “As soon as 
you are ready, join us in the lab.” 

When Gordon entered the laboratory 
he found Diana and Doctor Thurston 
bending over a glass tray in which some 
ants of various sizes and shapes were 
crawling about. The girl picked up one 
of the largest ones with a pair of tweez- 
ers and examined it through a magnify- 
ing glass. 

“Isn’t she beautiful?” she said over 
her shoulder to Gordon. 

He made a wry face. “Hardly beau- 
tiful,” he disagreed. 

“Well, whether or not you like her 
sh^)e, you had better take a good look 
at her because in a few minutes her 
name is going to be Diana Freeland. 
Here. Take a pair of tweezers and see 
if you can pick out a nice male bug for 
your own sweet soul to inhabit.” 

“Which ones are the males?” Gordon 
asked as he poked around among the 
bustling insects with the tweezers. 

“They are easy enough to find. They 
are those big fat ones — ^the only ones 
with wings.” 

"Surely they aren’t ants,” he doubted. 
“They look more like bumble-bees.” 

“Nevertheless they are Driver ants of 
the male caste.” 

“Guess I’ll have to take your word 
for it. How about this one. Does he 
look O, K. to you?” 

“I see nothing wrong with him. Sup- 
pose we put him in this box for the 
time being. Before we start with the 
experiment we must agree on some plan 
whereby I can ultimately locate your 
ant-bodies and restore you to your hu- 
man forms.” 

piCKING up a small brush he went 
A on; “I shall first paint a yellow cross 


50 


AMAZING STORIES 


on the gaster, or abdomen, of each of 
these ants. That will enable me to rec- 
ognize you.” 

“But suppose we want to reach you,” 
Gordon suggested. 

“I have provided for that also. While 
your ant army is on the march I shall 
strive to keep as close to it as possible. 
This will be difficult, but I think I can 
manage it. At regular intervals I shall 
make my presence known to you in two 
ways. First I shall signal audibly with 
a whistle which produces a very shrill 
note, one that will carry a long distance 
and will be easily perceivable by your 
insect sense organs. I shall also im- 
pregnate my boots with a scent that is 
distinctive and penetrating. When you 
wish to return, all you need to do is to 
follow the sound or the odor until you 
locate me. Crawl up on one of boots 
and I shall immediately know you.” 

“But how about our human bodies?” 
Cabot asked. “Won’t it be rather risky 
to leave them here while you are trailing 
the ant army all over Africa? Suppose 
your laboratory should catch fire, or sup- 
pose ” 

"I have provided for every contin- 
gency,” the doctor interrupted him. “One 
of our neighbors is Doctor Dean, a phy- 
sician in whom I have the utmost con- 
fidence. You haven’t met him yet, but 
Diana knows him.” 

“Sure,” was the girl’s verification. 
“Doctor Dean is O. K., Gordon.” 

“Dean has consented to devote all his 
time helping us with this experiment,” 
Thurston went on. “He will guard your 
human bodies and will see that they re- 
ceive whatever attention they require. 
Have you any other questions?” 

“Yes,” Cabot said. “There’s one thing 
more I’d like to know.” 

“And that is ?” 

“Shall we be able to talk to each other, 
Diana and I — after we have become 
ants ?” 


“I don’t think there is any doubt that 
you will be able to communicate with 
each other,” the scientist answered. “It 
has clearly been shown by extensive ob- 
servations and repeated experiments 
that ants must have some means of com- 
munication. Just how they do this has 
not been definitely established, but evi- 
dence seems to indicate that they signal 
to each other with their antennae. Of 
course, you understand that this system 
of conveying ideas must be quite difier- 
ent from human speech, but undoubtedly 
it is none the less intelligible to the ants 
themselves. Is there anything else you 
would like to know?” 

“Not that I can think of right now.” 

“And you, Diana? Have you any 
questions ?” 

Diana shook her head and smiled. 
“I’m ready. Uncle Hermann.” 

“Then permit me to give you two your 
final instructions: After I place you in- 
side the transmigration cabinets you will 
simply relax. In a few minutes you 
will fall into a peaceful sleep. On awak- 
ening you will have your new ant bodies. 
In order to familiarize you with the sig- 
nals I have just explained, I shall try 
them all out before we leave the labora- 
tory. You can indicate that you are 
able to perceive and follow them by 
coming to me and crawling up on my 
boot. I shall also place before you some 
food in the form of ant eggs. These are 
considered a great delicacy by all ants. 
You must eat heartily of the eggs. This 
ought to provide you with enough nour- 
ishment for many days in case you do 
not wish to eat any of the game which 
the Drivers kill. Another advantage of 
having your crops full of palatable food 
is that it may help you in case any 
of the guards challenge you.” 

“l^OES that mean that we will need 
a pass- word to join the ant 
army?” Gordon asked. 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


51 


“Not exactly. But the ants have very 
efficient methods for detecting and 
promptly executing all outsiders. As I 
told you before, they recognize their 
brothers and sisters by scent alone. Since 
these ants which we have selected are 
fresh from the colony, they ought to 
smell all right, unless their odor is 
changed by the transmigration machine.” 

“And suppose we are challenged — 
what shall we do then?” 

“The best plan will be to try bribery.” 

“Bribery?” 

“Yes. Most of the food an ant eats 
goes into a sort of social stomach known 
as the crop, from which it can regurgi- 
tate a portion of it whenever it desires. 
I believe that if you offer some nice 
premasticated ant eggs to one of your 
soldier sisters she will accept it and per- 
mit you to go on your way unmolested.” 

Following the doctor’s instructions the 
two young people crawled inside the 
chambers of the machines assigned to 
them and stretched out, flat on their 
backs. 

Gordon wasn’t exactly afraid, but he 
did have a queer feeling just below his 
diaphragm, when he heard the door close. 
Almost at once the metempsychosis im- 
pulses started. Long before the ma- 
chine had reached its maximum velocity, 
he had fallen into a luxurious, blissful 
slumber. He felt as if he were floating 
in space, untrammeled by the earthward 
pull of gravitation. Opening his eyes he 
looked about him and was astonished to 
see his own body lying asleep a few 
inches below him. But this impression 
was only momentary. In an instant he 
felt himself floating — or rather flowing 
upward. Sleep once more overcame 
him. 

It seemed to be but a few seconds later 
when he awoke again. The first thing 
he did was to inspect his own body. It 
didn’t take him long to realize that the 
first part of the experiment had been 


successful. His consciousness was now 
clothed in the winged, six-legged, sable- 
hued body of a male ant. 

He felt something touch his forelegs. 
It was light colored and looked like the 
edge of a large board. 

“That must be a piece of paper,” he 
reflected. “Thurston probably wants me 
to climb up on it.” 

To test out his theory, he scrambled 
over the edge of the white object. With 
amazing swiftness it lifted him up into 
the air, and then lowered, coming to 
rest on another object which he correctly 
guessed was the floor of the laboratory. 

Soon he became aware of the pro- 
pinquity of another insect. Gordon had 
always looked upon ants as ugly, dis- 
gusting pests, but this particular ant was 
one of the most attractive creatures he 
had ever beheld. Its rotund, elongated 
gaster glistened immaculately, like patent 
leather. Joined to it by a slender waist 
was the chitin-armored thorax to which 
all six legs were attached. The head 
was round and- large and was armed 
with a pair of sickle-shaped mandibles 
which looked formidable but none the 
less charming. From between them 
waved the graceful, jointed antennae. 

The delectable creature came close to 
him and began stroking his head with 
her feelers. Though Thurston’s explana- 
tion had prepared him, Gordon was sur- 
prised at the ease with which he was 
able to interpret the message she tapped 
out in the emmet version of the Morse 
code. 

The signals did not come through as 
words or symbols, of course, but rather 
in the form of thought pictures, which 
singularly were much easier to compre- 
hend than spoken language.* 

*In chronicling the “conversations" which took place 
between Diana. Gordon and other ants of the Driver 
colony, the author has attempted in each caae to sdect 
the words which would most accurately susrgest the 
thoughts as they were actually exchanged. It is under* 
stood, of course, that no symbols corresponding to the 
English words were really used by the ants in trans- 
mitting their thought messages to each other. 


52 


AMAZING STORIES 


**r TELLO. sweetheart,” Diana seemed 
A to be saying to him. “Are you 
convinced now?” 

“Yes, of course,” was the message he 
tapped back to her. 

Just then he heard a loud, musical 
sound which reminded him of a pipe- 
organ. 

“That must be our friend calling us,” 
he signaled to the female ant. “Let us 
see if we can find him.” 

Together they walked in the direction 
from which the sound seemed to come. 
Soon Gordon saw an odd-shaped, brown- 
ish hill looming up before him. 

“I can see the Doctor’s boot,” he 
said in the ant language. “Over this 
way.” 

Nimbly they climbed up on the boot. 
A large, leathery object ridged with deep 
corrugations (which Gordon surmised 
was Thurston’s finger) descended and 
gently stroked each of them in turn. 
Then it nudged them a bit roughly. 

“I think he wants us to climb down 
again,” Gordon suggested. 

“O. K. Let us do it.” 

When they reached the floor, the brown 
object disappeared. 

“He is walking away to try something 
else,” said Diana. 

This was verified an instant later 
when a peculiar odor was wafted to 
their smell organs, which were situated 
in the tips of their antennae. 

Again they walked toward the source 
of the signals and found the huge boot 
without difficulty. 

Next they were scooped up on a piece 
of pappr and were deposited inside what 
looked like an enormous circular room, 
which really was a round powder-box. 

Followed then a long interval, during 
which the two human ants sensed that 
they were being carried for a consider- 
able distance. 

Finally, above the other noises of the 
brush, they heard loud trumpetings. It 


sounded like an enormous band — ^thou- 
sands of wind instruments all being 
tuned up at the same time with an ab- 
sence of melody or harmony. Neither 
were there any conspicuous discords, 
and the concert produced a pleasurable 
effect in the minds of both the ant- 
humans. 

A t the same time they became cogni- 
zant of a powerful odor. Gordon 
associated it dimly with the carrion smell 
which had nauseated him the night be- 
fore when he was besieged in his bed 
by the Driver Ants. But the scent which 
had been a disgusting stench to his hu- 
man nostrils seemed fragrantly attractive 
to his ant smell-organs. 

The box in which they had been con- 
veyed from the laboratory was tilted up, 
with its floor perpendicular to the 
ground. Clinging to the cardboard, face 
downward, Diana drew close to Gordon 
and spoke thus with her antennae : 
“Lover of mine, this is the crisis! The 
next few seconds will probably decide 
whether we are to survive or perish. 
Whatever happens, I want you to know 
that I appreciate all you have done for 
me and that I love you with all my 
heart.” 

“And I love you, my darling. I shall 
keep on loving you forever.” 

Then, side by side, they stepped out of 
the pill-box right into the midst of that 
army of ferocious killers. 

CHAPTER V 

Danger and Strategy 

D iana and Gordon expected to 
be challenged but they were not 
prepared for the panic of ex- 
citement which greeted their arrival 
amidst the Ant Army. All around them 
crowded the small worker ants. Most 
of them were burdened with larvae. 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


53 


grape-like clusters of eggs, or particles 
of food, which they carried in their 
mandibles. Scores of the emmet labor- 
erg dropped their burdens and rushed 
at the two newcomers, jostling them, 
nudging them and tugging at them ex- 
citedly, but without inflicting any serious 
injuries. 

From the belligerent gestures of their 
antennae, Gordon gathered that they 
were suspicious and menacing; but their 
antagonism seemed to be held in check 
by favorable, conflicting impressions 
which they apparently obtained from 
their inspections of the ant-humans. 

Remembering what Doctor Thurston 
had told him, Gordon regurgitated a 
droplet of food and offered it to the 
worker that was closest to his mouth. 
Diana did likewise. Much to their con- 
sternation the other ants refused to ac- 
cept the proffered tid-bits. 

“Looks like they are too excited to 
notice our gifts,” Gordon signalled to 
Diana. 

“Perhaps it isn’t considered proper 
for workers to accept bribes from mem- 
bers of the royalty,” she suggested. 
“Usually it is the other way around. 
The males and females are generally 
fed by the workers.” 

Just then he noticed a strange tapping 
on his head and discovered that one of 
the tiny workers was trying to com- 
municate with him. Gordon didn’t have 
the slightest difficulty in decoding the 
message, which was something like this: 
“Your odor seems to be almost the 
same as ours. Nevertheless, you smell 
like a spy. We workers can’t be sure 
whether we ought to kill you, so we 
have sent for some of the guards. They 
will be here soon. Wait until they ar- 
rive.” Then the spokesman moved along 
with the line of march, as if nothing 
unusual had happened. 

Forcing his way through the coterie 
of six-leggers that surrounded Diana, 


Gordon faced her and spoke to her thus : 
“This looks bad to me. They have sent 
for some of those big-headed soldier 
ants to look us over. There must be 
something wrong with our body odor. 
Those warrior ants are ruthless beasts. 
They will probably tear us to pieces 
first and then hold a post-mortem to 
find out whether or not we were O. K. 
We’d better get out of here while there 
is still a chance.” 

“But how are we going to escape ?” 
she asked. “We are completely sur- 
rounded by hostile ants — millions of 
them.” 

“Perhaps I can fly away and carry 
you with me,” he suggested. “I shall 
now try out my wings to see Jf they 
are in working order.” ' 

He had no sooner started to spread 
his wings than he was pounced upon by 
a score of the workers. They didn’t 
hurt him, but they held him so tightly 
that he could hardly move. He folded 
his wings and immediately they let go 
of him. 

“I guess that idea wasn’t so hot,” he 
signalled to Diana. 

“I’m afraid not,” she responded. “And 
if we try to force our way out by 
crawling we will walk right into the 
mandibles of the soldiers.” 

“Then I suppose there is nothing to 
do but wait.” 

At that instant they both detected a 
series of alarming odors. There were 
many different scents but they seemed 
to be combined to form a sort of smell 
image, just as patches of light and 
.sloadow are grouped together in a visible 
image. The impression created in their 
minds suggested a pack of ferocious 
monsters rushing forward, intent on 
destroying them. The very air seemed 
charged with anger and hatred. In- 
stinctively they realized that these ter- 
rible creatures were in no mood for 


54 


AMAZING STORIts. 


investigation or deliberation. “Kill ! 
Kill!” was their slogan. 

S UDDENLY Diana remembered 
something which her father had told 
her years before. “Quick!” she tapped 
out briskly on Gordon’s head. “Play 
’possum! Pretend you are dead! It is 
our only hope !” 

A split second before the would-be 
executioners reached them, Diana and 
Gordon rolled over on their backs, draw- 
ing in their legs and holding their bodies 
stiff and motionless. 

The ruse worked. Over their inert 
forms the warriors tramped, paying no 
more attention to them than if they had 
been a couple of pebbles. 

Breathlessly the two adventurers 
waited there, not daring to raise a foot 
or wiggle an antenna. They were close 
to the center of the column, which was 
over six feet in width and was almost 
immeasurable in length. Over them and 
around them swarmed the burdened 
workers, massed together so closely that 
there was hardly a hair’s breadth be- 
tween their shiny, black bodies. 

When it seemed as if the ant-humans 
could endure the suspense no longer 
their antennae caught a fresh and ex- 
tremely unusual smell-image. Approach- 
ing them, in the center of the column 
of marchers, was a creature so different 
from the workers and the soldier ants 
that it might easily have been taken for 
an insect of an entirely different species. 
Its gaster was enormously distended — 
so much so that it could hardly drag 
itself along the ground and had to be 
assisted by scores of dutiful workers 
who surrounded it on all sides, help- 
ing it over all obstacles, feeding it 
with regurgitated food and cleansing 
its body constantly. 

“That must be the Queen-Mother,” 
Gordon thought. “Perhaps if we stay 
close to her we will be safe.” 


Cautiously he crept to Diana’s side 
and signalled' this suggestion to her in 
the antenna language. Apparently the 
idea appealed to her for she suddenly 
came to life and scampered after the 
Queen’s retinue, v/hich had already 
passed. Gordon followed close at her 
heels. 

The miracle had happened! For the 
time being, none of their companions 
molested them or paid any further at- 
tention to them. 

As they hurried onward in the wake 
of her royal highness, Diana remarked 
to Gordon, “Isn’t she glorious!” 

“Glorious ?” he echoed. “Who is 
glorious ?” 

“Why our marvelous queen-mother, 
of course.” 

“I don’t see anything glorious about 
her. To me she seems monstrous — 
monstrous and pitiful. She’s nothing 
but an enormous, bloated egg-laying 
machine. What an outrage it is to 
compel that poor creature to drag her 
unwieldy body along on a grueling march 
like this!” 

“Don’t waste your pity on her. She 
loves it!” Diana assured him. 

“How do you know that?” 

“Because I envy her! How wonder- 
ful it would be if I could become a 
queen-mother like her!” 

“What in the world are you raving 
about?” he demanded. 

“I am not raving. I mean it with 
all my soul. Just think! All^the mem- 
bers of this great army — soldiers, males, 
females, workers, larvae, eggs — millions 
of them — ^all are her children! Every 
last one of them came from that marvel- 
ous body of hers! If I could only be 
like her and become the mother of a 
great nation like this!” 

G ordon, of course, thought she 
was jesting. He couldn’t believe 
she was serious. Little did he then 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


55 


realize that the cumulative instincts of 
ages were concentrated in Diana’s ant 
body, developed with such power that 
they overwhelmed her human will, which 
strong as it was, became feeble in com- 
parison. 

Yater on he was to learn how for- 
midable and perilous those fmidamental, 
deeply rooted ant-instincts really were. 

CHAPTER VI 

War with the Mushroom Growers 

W HEN Diana first hinted that 
she was contemplating forsak- 
ing her human form perma- 
nently in order to fulfill the destiny which 
her ant body had imposed on her, Gor- 
don failed to appreciate the full horror 
of the situation. One reason was that, 
although he himself was conscious of 
strange, atavistic urgings, they did not 
alarm him, since his virile, human will 
was able f;o hold these instincts com- 
pletely in abeyance. 

This can easily be explained. Among 
the ants, the male is relatively insignifi- 
cant. Only one instinct, namely that of 
mating, is strongly developed, and even 
that is permitted to function only for 
a very brief period in the lifetime of 
the individual. 

The virgin queen, on the other hand 
is a veritable storage battery in which 
are accumulated all the intense and 
mighty traditions which have been de- 
veloped and passed onward by myriads 
of female progenitors for ages past. 

But though Gordon didn’t understand 
Diana’s yearnings, they disturbed him 
nevertheless. In an effort to divert her 
mind from the monstrous egg-laying 
machine which seemed to have cast such 
a potent spell over her, Gordon made 
a suggestion to her: 

“Let us crawl out near the edge of 
the column and see what the police ants 


are doing. I do not think they will 
harm us now. We seem to have acquired 
the correct smell.’’ 

Diana signified her approval by plow- 
ing recklessly through the crowd of 
Lilliputian insects that surrounded her 
on all sides. 

Soon they reached the soldiers, who 
formed a living wall, hedging in the 
non-combatants and protecting them 
from any enemies that might be encount- 
ered. Though they were much smaller 
than the males and females, they were 
considerably larger than the workers. 
Their enormous heads were almost 
square and were armed with sharp- 
pointed mandibles. 

Gordon noticed that every once in a 
while a few of the soldiers would de- 
tach themselves from the main column 
and would scamper away, only to re- 
turn again in a short time. Consider- 
able excitement was created when one 
of these scouts brought back the story 
that it had discovered a large and popu- 
lous nation of farmer ants. 

Just how Gordon himself acquired 
this information he did not know. The 
very air seemed charged with the glori- 
ous news. Like an international radio 
broadcast it was quickly picked up and 
relayed throughout the entire driver 
army. 

Without delay, tens of thousands of 
the soldiers separated themselves from 
the main body, marching in serried ranks 
with military precision and leaving the 
workers on that side temporarily un- 
guarded. 

“Come on, Diana!” Gordon tapped 
out excitedly. “Now is our chance to 
escape !” 

“Who wants to escape,” she came back 
at him. “I came on this expedition to 
get knowledge and excitement and it 
looks like the fun is only just be- 
ginning.” 


56 


AMAZING STORIES 


“But, Diana,” he started to protest 
with his antennae. 

“Don’t be such a wet blanket,” she 
interrupted him. “Come along ! Let 
us join the raid and see what the in- 
side of an ant-nest looks like.” 

Before he could communicate with 
her any further she was off at a brisk 
scamper and Gordon had to hurry to 
catch up with her. 

Soon they reached the alien colony. 
The Drivers were masters in the strategy 
of surprise but their attack, sudden and 
unexpected as it was, did not catch their 
victims entirely unprepared. Surround- 
ing the hill, several thousand of the 
farmer-ants had already formed a circle 
of grim, determined fighters. 

But they were no match for the Army 
Ants, either in numbers or ferocity. 
Hopeless as they must have known their 
cause to be, they all fought on fearlessly 
and courageously, selling their lives as 
dearly as possible in their self-sacrific- 
ing efforts to delay the invasion. 

W ITHIN a few seconds all those 
valiant defenders were literally 
torn to pieces and the remains of their 
bodies had been carried away by clean- 
up squads of small Legionary workers. 

This pitiful obstacle being removed, 
the soldiers swarmed inside the formi- 
cary.* Only a relatively small portion 
of the army — similar in size to a regi- 
ment — was detailed to invade the nest. 
They seemed to know instinctively how 
many would be required to do the job 
right. Others remained outside, sur- 
rounding the portal and lying in wait 
for any of the inhabitants who might 
attempt to run away. Because of their 
large size, the two ant-humans had some 
trouble forcing their way through the 
gate of the ants’ city. 

Head first, Diana crawls down the 
perpendicular walls of the passageway 

* Ants* nest — Ant Hill. 


and Gordon followed close behind her. 
They had penetrated a considerable dis- 
tance and had passed several side-cor- 
ridors in which furious battles were tak- 
ing place, when Diana stopped and be- 
gan to explore the wall of the shaft 
with her feelers. Then she attacked the 
earth with her mandibles, opening up a 
breach leading to a large, vaulted cham- 
ber. 

The floor of the room was covered 
with a thick layer of compost on which 
was growing a peculiar kind of vegeta- 
tion. It resembled mushrooms except 
that the stalks were long and tenuous 
and were covered with round nodules 
like turnips. When the two intruders 
made their unceremonious entrance into 
the fungus garden they surprised a few 
of the Farmer Ants who were busy 
masticating particles of leaves which 
they were adding to the compost bed. 

Immediately the workers gave the 
alarm, by beating their heads against 
the floor and walls of the chamber. Then 
they hurled themselves upon Diana. 
They were like mice attacking a full 
grown cat, but they tried to make up 
for their lack of size and numbers by 
the fury of their onslaught. With hor- 
rible ruthlessness, Diana snapped at 
them right and left. At each click of 
her terrible pincers one of the brave 
gardeners lay mangled and motionless 
on the floor. 

When she had disposed of all her ad- 
versaries, she turned her attention to 
the mushroom beds, walking carefully 
over them and licking some tiny squash- 
shaped objects which lay on top of the 
fungus. 

Gordon drew near to find out what 
she was doing. By some strange sense- 
impressions, consisting principally of 
smells, he learned that the vegetation 
was covered with small, pale grubs which 
were browsing on the nodules like lambs 
in a pasture. 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


57 


"Aren’t they sweet?” Diana signalled 
to him. “I am going to adopt all of 
them. I must stay here and protect 
them, so that those nervy farmer-ants 
don’t steal them away from me.” 

“Please don’t joke,” Gordon beseeched 
her. 

“I’m not joking. These children all 
belong to me, I tell you. I found them 
didn’t I? And what a wonderful start 
this will be for my new colony — the 
nation of which I am to be mother and 
queen. Soon these lovely antlets will 
become fine workers. They will bring 
me food and take care of me so that 
I won’t need to do anything but lay 
thousands and thousands of eggs.” 

“But, Diana ” he started to pro- 

test. 

She didn’t let him get any further. 

“Don’t try to talk me out of it. I 
know what I want and nothing can stop 
me!” 

I T was then that Gordon realized 
clearly the ominous truth: Diana was 
in frightful danger. And of all the perils 
that beset her the most egregious one 
of all came from within herself. If 
he was to save her he must find some 
way of appealing to that tiny spark of 
human consciousness that was being 
stifled and engulfed by the flood of 
powerful instincts stored within her fe- 
male ant-body. 

His problem was complicated by the 
arrival of the Farmer-Ant reinforce- 
ments. Hundreds of them came swarm- 
ing through an opening on the opposite 
side of the cavern from the place where 
Diana and Gordon had entered. With 
the same fearless courage, which had 
characterized the fighting of their com- 
rades, they flung themselves upon the 
huge bodies of the two ant-humans. 

Gordon hated to use his powerful 
mandibles on any of these brave heroines 
who were only trying to protect their 


own property, but he realized that this 
was a case of kill or be killed. Follow- 
ing Diana’s example he fought back 
with all the fury of a parent defending 
its young. 

Singly or in small numbers, the tiny, 
poorly armed Farmer- Ants could do no 
serious harm to Diana or Gordon, but 
it was a different and far more menac- 
ing story when hundreds of them charged 
upon the intruders from all sides. 

Gordon tried to get Diana to retreat 
with him through the breach which she 
had made on entering, but this she re- 
fused to do. 

“I shall not desert these babies!” she 
seemed almost to scream with her ex- 
cited antennae. “They are mine, I tell 
you! To keep them I shall if necessary 
fight the whole world!” 

There was no recourse for Gordon but 
to remain and do what little he could 
to protect Diana. 

In a few seconds both their bodies 
were completely mantled in thick blan- 
kets of frenzied, militant Farmer-Ants. 
They snapped at the legs and the an- 
tennae of the two Drivers. They 
swarmed over the huge gasters, search- 
ing for openings between the over- 
lapping segments of the chitin armours. 

Gordon felt a sharp pain in the region 
of his neck and suddenly realized that 
five or six of his opponents were busily 
gnawing away at the slender joint be- 
tween his head and his thorax, in an 
attempt to decapitate him. He managed 
to dislodge the would-be executioners 
with his forelegs but their places were 
immediately taken by a dozen others. 
Realizing that Diana was exposed to a 
similar danger, he drew closer to her 
and began to pick off, one by one, the 
ants which clustered about her neck. At 
the same time he used his forelegs to 
good advantage in keeping his own head 
from being chewed off. 

Their plight was desperate. The two 


58 


AMAZING STORIES 


Drivers could not hope to slay all their 
enemies. Sooner or later the tiny 
fighters would succeed in amputating 
their legs or in reaching some vital spot 
with their mandibles and that would be 
the end of the adventure. 

When it seemed as if they could hold 
out no longer, a faint but powerfully 
welcome odor was wafted to their an- 
teimae. It was the fetid scent of the 
Driver-soldiers. 

The Farmers must have smelled it 
too, for they stopped fighting for a brief 
interval and gathered together in groups 
with their heads toward the center, like 
football players in a huddle. Gordon 
took advantage of this truce to drag 
Diana’s unwilling body an inch or so 
closer to the hole through which they 
had entered. But before he was half- 
way there, there came flowing through 
the opening a river of shiny black 
bodies. 

A few of the Farmers tried to run 
away but most of them held their ground 
valiantly. 

The battle was short. 

It seemed but a few seconds, before 
every last one of the Farmers had been 
slain and their mangled bodies had been 
carried away. Leaving a dPzen or so 
on guard, the main body of the soldiers 
filed through the other entrance of the 
chamber in search of more enemies to 
conquer. 

Soon their places were taken by a 
squad of small workers who proceeded 
to remove the larvae of the Farmer 
ants. Diana protested indignantly, try- 
ing to make good her claim of owner- 
ship. She even went so far as to snap 
with her murderous mandibles within a 
hair’s breadth of some of the Driver 
workers ; but the soldier-guards soon put 
a stop to that. 

One of them, who seemed to be a 
sort of officer, approached Diana, speak- 
ing to her sharply in the antenna lan- 


guage: “What are you doing here? Your 
place is among the young and the other 
virgins. What right have you to desert 
your post? Hurry back where you be- 
long before you get hurt!’’ 

Much to Gordon’s surprise, Diana ac- 
cepted her soldier-sister’s authoritative 
orders without question. Quietly and 
meekly she crawled up the passageway 
that led to the surface and Gordon fol- 
lowed close behind her, fearful to let 
her out of his sight. 

CHAPTER VII 
The Living Ark 

W HEN Diana and Gordon emerged 
from the city of the Mushroom- 
Growers the army of the Driv- 
ers was already on the march. She 
hastened to rejoin them, but he tried to 
detain her. 

“Let us wait a while,’’ he suggested. 
“Let us listen. Let us smell. Let us 
try to find out if the doctor is on the 
job.’’ 

“Spiders on that old bald pate of 
his!’’ was Diana’s disrespectful response. 
“Why should we bother with that old 
doctor? Are we not having a glorious 
time right here?’’ And away she scam- 
pered. 

Gordon did not dare to let her get too 
far away, but he lingered long enough 
to explore the air with his antenna and 
to listen intently with his chordotonal 
organs.* He thought he caught a whiff 
of a strange odor, but could not be sure 
it was the scent which Thurston had 
agreed to use as a signal. The only un- 
usual soimd he could distinguish was a 
bugle-like note, totally different from 
that of the doctor’s whistle. Though he 
didn’t identify it at the time, he learned 
later that it was the call of an elephant. 

* These are supposed to be auditory members in 
insects. They arc variously situated on their bodies. 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


59 


Diana’s body was already surrounded 
by a flood of marching workers, and 
Gordon had to tax his legs to their ut- 
most to catch up with her. Once he 
was in the midst of the army, all other 
sounds and all other smells were com- 
pletely smothered by the loud noises and 
the odoriferous emanations of his com- 
panions. 

The way led along the floor of a steep- 
walled ravine. To Gordon it looked 
larger than the Grand Canyon of the 
Colorado, but in reality it was only a 
shallow gully. 

After a while an ominous noise came 
to his auditory organs. Though it 
wasn’t particularly loud it had a strange 
depth and intensity which made it au- 
dible even above the rustling and stridu- 
lating of the vast emmet army. 

It sounded like a great wind blowing 
through distant vegetation. Gordon 
glanced upward at a forest of elephant 
grass which seemed almost to touch the 
sky. It was as motionless as death. Not 
a blade swayed or trembled. Then, with- 
out further \varning, there was a blind- 
ing flash, followed by a deafening de- 
tonation. A tropical thunder-storm was 
upon them! Soon another sound was 
added to the rumbling of the thunder 
and the howling of the wind. It was 
the terrifying roar of a rapidly ap- 
proaching torrent. 

There was not time enough to race 
for higher ground. Before any of the 
ants realized what had happened a wall 
of raging water plunged over them. 

Gordon struggled to the surface to 
find himself in a spinning whirlpool of 
black bodies. In vain he searched for 
Diana. She had disappeared as com- 
pletely as if the deluge had swallowed 
her. 

As he tossed and plunged and spun 
along v^ith the swirling torrent, he be- 
came the nucleus of a living raft formed 
from the bodies of worker ants who 


clung to him on all sides. At first he 
tried to dislodge his companions, but 
he soon realized that this was part of 
an ingenious ant-plan to save them all 
from drowning. Other living balls of 
insects were forming all around him. 
When two of them touched each other, 
they combined forces, forming them- 
selves into a larger cluster. It wasn’t 
long before all the ants who had man- 
aged to survive the first mad rush of the 
waters were consolidated into one enor- 
mous ball which must have contained at 
least a cubic yard of insects. It was a 
veritable ark — formed from the living 
bodies of the survivors. 

Thus clustered together, the Driver 
army was admirably equipped to weather 
the storm. Thanks to the air spaces 
between the bodies of its insesct com- 
ponents, the ball floated high in the 
water. It rotated slowly, and the ants 
on the outside were constantly crawling 
toward the center and being replaced by 
others. Consequently no single indi- 
vidual or group of individuals was sub- 
merged long enough to cause drowning 
or even to produce serious discomfort. 

A fter the ant-ark had navigated 
for a considerable distance down 
the stream, it reached a place where the 
canyon widened and the water began 
to flow more smoothly. Finally it touched 
land. The ants on the outside of the 
ball caught hold of the twigs of a thorn- 
bush and anchored the craft to the shore. 
With the orderly discipline of a well- 
trained army disembarking from a trans- 
port, the ants flowed out of the living 
ark and swarmed over the ground. 

The spot where they landed turned 
out to be an island. It was so small 
that the enormous host had to stand on 
top of each other, three or four deep, 
in order to keep from being crowded 
back into the water. Gordon could sec 
the green wall of mangoes which marked 


60 


AMAZING STORIES 


the nearest shore, and he estimated it 
to be about five feet away. 

At a cape which jutted out a trifle 
further than the rest of the island, he 
noticed that something unusual was hap- 
pening. One of the soldier ants grasped 
a tiny twig in its forelegs and pushed it 
ahead of her into the water. Then an- 
other ant took hold of the first one, 
grasping her gaster between her man- 
dibles and holding a second piece of 
wood with her legs. In similar manner 
a third ant with its improvised life 
preserver added herself to the other two. 

Soon there was a long line of float- 
ing ants anchored to the island and 
thrusting out at an angle toward the 
mainland. At last the backwash of the 
current caught the front end of the line 
and swept it toward the shore. 

Thus was formed a living pontoon 
bridge, across which a continuous line 
of workers laden with eggs and larvce 
began to file. Among the Ant-People, 
as among humans, the rule was to save 
the children and the weakest members of 
the community first. 

Gordon watched while the enormous 
Queen-Mother was led to the water’s 
edge. She attempted to cross on the 
single line of living pontoons, but they 
sank out of sight under her ponderous 
weight. 

With remarkable rapidity two more 
lines of floating soldiers formed along 
the upstream edge of the first one. 
Qinging together in three compact rows, 
they formed a bridge that was buoyant 
enough to support the heavy bodies of 
the Queen and her large, virgin daugh- 
ters. Several of the males also crawled 
across the living, floating road. Gordon 
wondered why they didn’t use their 
wings to fly across the stream. The 
question was answered by his own ant 
instinct. The flying apparatus of the 
male ant is reserved exclusively for that 
momentous day when, at the word of 


command coming from some unknown, 
mysterious source, he must wing forth 
in quest of a mate belonging to another 
nation of Drivers. 

Gordon loitered behind, hoping that, 
as the ants crossed the bridge in single 
file, he would be able to locate Diana. 
More than a hundred of the females 
passed over to the mainland, but the one 
he sought was not among them. 

Tortured with foreboding, he held his 
post until only a handful of the big- 
headed soldiers remained on the island. 
All hope deserted him. He was forced 
to conclude that Diana had either 
drowned or had become separated from 
the rest of the Drivers. Without the 
protection of the alert and redoubtable 
guardians, she would undoubtedly fall 
an easy victim to the host of predatory 
birds, entoraophagous* animals and giant 
spiders which haunted the brush. 

Since there was nothing else for him 
to do, he scrambled over the bodies of 
the living pontoons. He had scarcely 
started across the bobbing bridge when 
the end which had been fastened to the 
island was cast off. Swiftly and smooth- 
ly, the entire bridge was hauled in to the 
opposite bank. Then the rain stopped 
abruptly and the sun began to glare 
down balefully on the sodden earth. 

Though all the Drivers, except the 
males, were stone blind, they seemed 
to be extremely sensitive to light. They 
scurried hastily for the nearest shade. 

I N some mysterious manner the con- 
fused, milling mob of insects reor- 
ganized into a column of orderly, well 
disciplined marchers. On they went in 
the usual formation — small workers, vir- 
gin queens, males and Queen-Mother in 
the center, hedged on both sides with 
stalwart walls of square-headed police- 
guards. Unerringly they picked out a 

* Insect-eating — adjective qualifying insects and ani- 
mals which feed on insects* 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


61 


winding path which followed the scant 
shade of the thorn shrub and elephant 
grass. 

Soon they reached a cleared region 
where, for what seemed like an enor- 
mously long stretch, there was not a 
particle of cover or shade. It took 
Gordon a considerable amount of spec- 
ulation to figure out that this remarkable 
stretch of bare ground was a road built 
by human hands. Drenched in blister- 
ing sunlight that meant death to the baby 
ants and their tiny nurses, this roadway 
seemed to be impassable. 

But the self-sacrificing and ingenious 
soldiers had been trained to overcome 
greater obstacles than this. Without a 
moment’s hesitation they began to clus- 
ter together, forming with their well- 
armored heads and bodies a covered run- 
way or bower. Through this living tun- 
nel the workers with their charges filed, 
amply protected from the injurious ef- 
fects of the sunlight. 

Thus the army reached the shelter 
of a dense growth of palms and pawpaw 
trees. Even there, however, the heat 
was intense and there were several clear- 
ings, where the living tunnels had to be 
rebuilt. 

Finally the order came to halt. Who 
issued the command, no one seemed to 
know. Yet every last individual in the 
entire army recognized it and obeyed 
it instantly. 

The place selected for the encampment 
was a fork in a broad branch which 
stretched out horizontally a few feet 
from the ground. Some of the soldiers 
climbed the trunk and formed themselves 
into living ladders which hung from the 
bought to the ground, making it easy for 
the workers to climb up to the camping 
place. 

In a short time the entire army was 
clustered together in a large ball, some- 
what similar to the ark which had saved 
them from the flood. 


Intent on his search for Diana, Gor- 
don started to explore the improvised 
home. He was astonished to discover 
that the interior of the ball was con- 
structed very much like the nest of the 
Farmer-Ants. There was one main en- 
trance and shaft, from which a large 
number of other passageways branched 
off in all directions. Throughout the 
structure were rooms of various sizes in 
which eggs, larvae and pupae were ad- 
ready laid out in neat, orderl]^ rows. 
In the very center of the sphere was an 
extra large, vaulted chamber which Gor- 
don discovered was the throne room. 
Here the Queen-Mother, surrounded by 
those whom we may term her courtiers, 
was busily at work laying eggs in amaz- 
ing profusion. Hovering around her was 
a host of solicitous attendants and nurses. 
They fed her generously with food re- 
gurgitated from their crops, they sham- 
pooed her head and body with their soft, 
spongy tongues, they brushed and 
cleansed her thoroughly from the tips 
of her mandibles to the end of her 
gaster. Others picked up the tiny, elon- 
gated eggs as soon as she laid them, 
hurrying away to deposit them in the 
chambers especially designed for that 
purpose. 

Finally Gordon made his way to the 
exit and crawled outside. He had hardly 
reached the open air when he became 
conscious of a distinctively powerful 
odor. It was unmistakably the same 
scent which he smelled that morning 
when he and Diana had crawled up on 
Doctor Thurston’s boot. 

He listened. 

A bove the turmoil of the ant 
. bivouac he distinguished faintly 
the sound he had hoped to hear— the 
organ note of Dr. Thurston’s whistle! 

Torn between the pangs of sorrow 
and the exultation of joy, he was al- 
most on the point of hurrying off in 


62 


AMAZING STORIES 


the direction of the sound and the scent 
when he realized that, much as he longed 
to resume his human form, it was out 
of the question for him to do so until 
he had either found Diana or had con- 
vinced himself beyond the shadow of a 
doubt that she was dead. Despite his 
pessimistic forebodings, he hung desper- 
ately to the wan hope, that in some 
miraculous manner she had saved her- 
self from the flood and was concealed 
somewhere in that gigantic maze of liv- 
ing insects. 

For these reasons, he held back. He 
didn’t care to move a step closer to the 
safety of Thurston’s boot. Suppose the 
searching doctor happened to recognize 
him and carried him back to the labo- 
ratory? If that occurred it would un- 
doubtedly mean that Diana would be 
lost forever. Even if she were still 
alive, her powerful ant-instincts would 
prevent her from returning voluntarily 
to human existence. 

And so Gordon crawled back into the 
nest of living bodies and spent the entire 
rest period in a futile hunt for the insect 
which had engulfed the soul of his be- 
loved Diana. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Bi^ Game for the Hunters 

W HEN the shadows began to 
lengthen and the sweltering heat 
of the jungle was somewhat 
mitigated, the word went forth for the 
ant-army to take up the march once 
more. 

On they went through the brush — fear 
clearing the way before them and death 
following in their wake. It must have 
been close to midnight when some of 
the scouts, who had been sent out to rec- 
onnoiter, came back to the main column 
with exciting and glorious news. They 
had found an enormous animal — much 
bigger than any which the Drivers had 


previously conquered. It was either 
asleep or was seriously wounded, for 
it had not run away with the alert, 
active creatures — which invariably fled 
as soon as they caught the scent of the 
Drivers. 

Eagerly the ferocious warriors formed 
themselves in serried ranks and marched 
in the direction indicated by the scouts. 
After them filed the workers and the 
other members of the colony. 

By the light of the tropic moon, Gor- 
don saw looming up ahead of him a 
huge, dark grey mountain. It was some 
time before he could convince himself 
that it really was a full grown elephant. 

Apparently it was asleep for it per- 
mitted nearly the entire army to swarm 
over its body before it became aware 
of their presence. 

Gordon remained on the ground close 
to the elephant’s head. He noticed that 
the outside of the trunk was black with 
the soldier ants and that some of them 
were crawling up inside it. 

Considering how sensitive the interior 
of an elephant’s trunk is, it was not sur- 
prising that the great beast awoke, as 
soon as the ants began biting pieces out 
of the trunk’s tender, mucous lining. 

With a trumpet of pain which made 
the jungle reverberate, it started flailing 
around with its trunk. Many of the 
ants were killed, and Gordon sickened 
at the thought that Diana might easily 
be one of the victims. Those of the 
army who were not slain hung on 
grimly as the giant pachederm went lum- 
bering through the brush. 

At its best the eyesight of an elephant 
is poor enough. This hapless beast was 
completely blinded by the relentless in- 
sects which swarmed over its eyes. 

Howling with anguish, the elephant 
crashed into large trees, tripped over 
fallen logs, and stumbled into steep 
ravines. 

It wasn’t long before it had broken 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


63 


two of its legs and was so battered, 
from its collisions with immovably pon- 
derous tree-trunks, that it fell flounder- 
ing to the ground. 

That was the beginning of the end. 

Reinforcements quickly arrived to re- 
place those of the attackers who had 
been killed. Soldiers were joined by 
workers, who, tiny as they were, did 
their part in vivisecting the great beast. 

Gordon, of course, did not participate 
in this grewsome work. Most of the 
time he spent in what seemed to be a 
hopeless search for Diana. He was 
almost ready to give up in despair 
when a happy inspiration came to him. 

By repeated experimentation he had 
learned that he could not make any loud 
sounds with his mouth, but at the base 
of his abdomen where his gaster joined 
his thorax, there was a remarkable ap- 
paratus for producing noise. Scientists 
call this musical instrument the stridula- 
tory organ. It consists of a rough, file- 
like surface against which is scraped 
the sharp edge of the ant’s postpetiole*. 
This produces a shrill, rasping sound 
which can be heard at a considerable 
distance by the chordotona! organs of 
insects. 

Gordon had made frequent use of 
his stridulatory organ, hoping Diana 
would recognize some distinguishing 
quality in it. But it was impossible to 
vary the pitch and the tone he produced 
was practically the same as those char- 
acteristic of the other male ants. 

He found, however, that he could 
easily control the rythm of his stridula- 
tions. Finally he thought of sending 
out a series of notes which would be 
recognized as coming unmistakably from 
a human being. The signal he decided 
on was the final flourish which practi- 
cally all tap dancers use in ending their 
performances: Translated to radio dots 
and dashes it sounded like this: Dash, 

* A Httle stalk on the ant’s body between thorax and 
' abdomen. 


dot, dot, dash, dash. Rest, dash, dash. 

S EVERAL times he repeated this call, 
stopping each time to listen for an 
answer. Finally it came: “Dum ta ta 
dum dum. Dum dum!” 

He hurried in the direction of the 
sound, stopping a few times to send 
out the call and to wait for the reply. 

Finally, when she was close enough 
so that he could make out the yellow 
cross which Doctor Thurston had painted 
on her gaster, he knew that it was 
indeed his loved one. 

To Gordon this reunion was fraught 
with intense joy, but Diana didn’t seem 
at all thrilled about it. She greeted him 
in a perfunctory manner and immedi- 
ately began to chatter, not about their 
human problems, but concerning the 
affairs of the emmet nation. 

“You’ll have to excuse me,” she prat- 
tled. "I am dreadfully busy. I have 
heard some wonderful news. Just be- 
fore the elephant fell for the last time, 
it crashed into a termite’s nest or termi- 
tarium, and made a large breach in it. 
One of our scouts discovered it a few 
minutes ago. An expedition is now 
being organized to raid the stronghold. 
I have often wondered what the inside 
of a termitarium is like and this is my 
big chance to find out. So long! I’ll 
be seeing you!” 

“Wait a minute!” Gordon signalled. 
“Now that I’ve found you, I can’t let 
you leave me again. This may be our 
only chance to escape. We must search 
for Doctor Thurston at once, so we can 
get back to our human bodies again.” 

“Beetle feathers !” she said scorn- 
fully. “Whai' do I care about that old 
fossil? What do I care about that 
worthless human body that used to be 
I? Now I am a queen! A queen ant! 
And I love it, I tell you! I love it!” 

“Please don’t say that,” he beseeched 
her. 


64 


AMAZING STORIES 


“Oh doodle bugs! I haven’t time to 
argue with you. There goes the gang 
to raid the termitary. That’s a lot more 
important to me than all your human 
nonsense. Good bye!’’ And she scam- 
pered toward a detachment of the ant 
army which had separated from the 
main host and was marching away in a 
regular, orderly column. 

Gordon hurried after her. 

When he came within signalling dis- 
tance he said, “If you insist on doing 
this foolish thing, I am going with 
you.’’ 

“Suit yourself,” was her only reply. 
CHAPTER IX 

The Attack on the Termite Monsters 

T he wrecked termitarium was a 
marvelous edifice. By comparing 
its size with the thorn bushes 
which surrounded it, Cabot estimated 
that it was at least eight feet high and 
covered an area of several square yards. 
Measured in proportion to the size of 
the tiny insects which had built it, this 
undertaking was comparable to a man- 
made structure several times as large 
as the Empire State building in New 
York. 

Already a large amount of the dam- 
age caused by the stricken elephant had 
been repaired. Gordon could make out 
the forms of hundreds of small, pale 
insects who were rapidly filling the gaps 
in the walls with a cement-like material 
which they seemed to be manufacturing 
from their own bodies. The termites 
were soft and translucent. Devoid of 
chitin or other protection, unequipped 
with fighting weapons, they appeared 
to be as vulnerable as baby grubs. 

Scenting this delicious and seemingly 
defenseless prey, the Driver warriors 
rushed to attack them. The termites 
continued to labor hurriedly but calmly 


until the ants were but a few inches 
from them. Then, as if by magic, all 
the soft, white bugs disappeared. 

Their places at the breaches in the 
walls were instantly taken by a band of 
preposterous creatures. 

The newcomers were termites of the 
soldier caste, differing from the grub- 
like workers as much as a crocodile 
differs from a rabbit. They had been 
developed and reared solely for fight- 
ing — and what fighters they were! 

Cabot got a good look at one of them, 
which was only a short distance away 
from him. All he could see of it was 
a monstrous, preposterous head. Black- 
in color, this head was heavily armoured 
and was equipped with a pair of enor- 
mous, murderous-looking mandibles, re- 
sembling the pincers of a lobster. 

With characteristic temerity, the lead- 
ers of the Driver army hurled them- 
selves into the jaws of these formidable 
defenders. The carnage which followed 
reminded Cabot of a band of naked 
savages being massacred by a battery of 
machine guns. Each time the murder- 
ous pincers of a soldier termite crunched 
together, six or seven of the attackers 
were permanently removed from the 
fray. Soon the ground in front of the 
broken termitary was heaped high with 
the mangled bodies of the slaughtered 
ants. 

When Diana reached the main column 
of the army, she charged forward with 
the others. Gordon manned to get in 
front of her, impeding her progress like 
a football player blocking interference. 

She stopped long enough to say, “Get 
out of my way, you clumsy fool!” 

“Wait!” he implored her. “Don’t 
try to storm that termites’ nest. It is 
.suicide! The ants haven’t a chance!” 

“Traitor!” she shrieked. “Let me go, 
I tell you.” 

“You don’t know what you are do- 
ing,” he told her. “You can’t see those 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


65 


terrible termite warriors. I have eyes. 
I can see them.” 

“I don’t need eyes. I can smell them. 
I know exactly what they are like, and 
I’m not afraid of them. I don’t care 
if I do get killed. I would gladly die 
for the glory of our great ant nation.” 

An inspiration coming to him, Cabot 
asked, “What about your ambition to 
become the mother of a great nation? 
You can’t expect to accomplish that 
wonderful achievement if you get your- 
self killed before your wedding day.” 

This appeal made her pause. “Per- 
haps you are right,” she conceded. Then, 
after a moment’s hesitation, she added, 
“But, after all, my first duty is to my 
own sisters. I must do what I can to 
help them, even if it means sacrificing 
my life.” And she started off toward 
the termitary. 

She had almost reached the nearest 
termite soldier when Gordon intercepted 
her again. 

“Listen, Diana,” he commanded her. 
“Let me go first. I have figured out a 
way to lick that termite. If my plan 
succeeds it will make it possible for you 
and your sister ants to enter the termi- 
tary without any more sacrifices. Won’t 
you please wait here until I try out my 
scheme ?” 

“ A LL right. Go ahead and get your- 
.tlself killed for all I care.” With 
brutal bluntness, she added, “You are 
getting to be an awful nuisance. Per- 
haps this will be a good way to get rid 
of you.” 

In reality Cabot had formulated no 
definite strategem. His mythical plan 
was merely a stall, invented on the spur 
of the moment to deter Diana from 
rushing to destruction. Now he real- 
ized he would have to do some quick 
and superior thinking in order to make 
good his promise. 

He tried to remember something he 


had once read about termites of the 
soldier caste. If his memory served 
him well, the defending warriors were 
invulnerable only when approached 
from the front. The termite nearest to 
him was standing with most of its body 
inside the narrow corridor of the strong- 
hold and with only its formidable head 
protruding from a crack in the wall. 
Peering into the shadows with his sharp 
eyes, Gordon was able to distinguish 
the faint outlines of a gaster which was 
ridiculously small in proportion to the 
head and which seemed to be soft and 
unarmoured like the bodies of the work- 
er termites. 

He also observed that, regardless of 
the number and position of its foes, 
the creature’s terrible manibles opened 
and shut with the rythmic regularity of 
a pendulum, as the warrior turned its 
head from side to side. It was quite 
apparent that the termite was blind. 

Perhaps — 

Crouching just out of range of the 
monster’s jaws, Gordon waited until 
the termite was occupied in exterminat- 
ing an unusually large band of ants 
which had rushed at it. Then, just as 
the mandibles closed on a dozen of the 
attackers, Cabot sprang with all his 
might. His first leap landed him in 
the midst of the squirming victims. Be- 
fore the jaws had time to open, he 
jumped again, this time alighting on 
top of the termite’s head. There wasn’t 
much room between that head and the 
roof of the passage way, but Gordon 
managed to squeeze through far enough 
so that he was within reach of the un- 
protected body. With the ferocity of 
of a mongose attacking a cobra, he sank 
his mandibles into that soft thorax. 

He expected a terrific battle. Much 
to his surprise, the warrior which had 
seemed so pugnacious from in front, 
gave up instantly and expired without a 
struggle. 


66 


AMAZING STORIES 


Seeming to realize their opportunity, 
scores of ants rushed forward, grasped 
the dead body of the termite fighter and 
dragged it outside. Through the open- 
ing thus left undefended, hundreds of 
the attacking ant army swarmed. 

Cabot hurried to repoin Diana. True 
to her promise, she was waiting for him 
at the spot where he had left her. 

“Good work, comrade!” she greeted 
him. “We’ll make a real ant out of you 
yet.” 

“Thank you, my dear,” he responded, 
“but I've had quite enough of bug life. 
It’s high time for us to thinkNpf re- 
gaining our human forms. Let’s go.” 

“Go where?” 

“Back to the dead elephant where the 
main army is camped. Doctor Thurston 
will probably be there searching for us 
there and signalling to us.” 

“Let him signal his head off for all I 
care. I’m going to find out what’s in- 
side that termite’s nest.” And she trot- 
ted toward the crack through which the 
ants were swarming. 

“Please don’t!” 

“Beetle feathers ! Don’t be such a 
butterfly. This is a chance that comes 
only once in an ant’s lifetime. Come on 
— unless you’re afraid to escort me!” 

This taunt took all the augmentation 
out of Gordon’s system. Meekly, but 
with pessimistic foreboding, he followed 
her as she crawled through the opening 
and scampered along the dark corridor 
of the termitarium. 

T hey hadn’t gone far when they 
encountered a file of ants who were 
hurrying in the opposite direction. It 
was quite apparent that something had 
frightened them, so much so that they 
were retreating to the open air in a 
panic-stricken mob. 

Diana stopped and turned to Gordon. 
“What can be the matter with them?” 
she wondered. 


“It must be something unspeakably 
frightful,” Gordon surmised. “Those 
same ants were ready to attack the ter- 
mite soldiers and to sacrifice their lives 
without a suggestion of fear. Whatever 
frightened them must be a lot worse 
than the big-heads.” 

Guided by their smell images, Diana 
and Gordon noticed that some of the 
fleeing ants were clutching frantically 
at their faces with their front feet while 
they tried to keep up with their com- 
panions by running with their remain- 
ing four legs. Others seemed to be 
almost paralyzed, being barely able to 
drag themselves along. 

One of the Drivers, apparently unin- 
jured, was carrying in its mandibles the 
body of another ant which was too far 
gone to help itself. 

“Come on, Diana,” Gordon signalled. 
“Let’s retreat to the open air while the 
way is still open.” 

But Diana, obsessed by an overpower- 
ing curiosity which was inherent in both 
her ant body and her human soul, in- 
sisted on lingering. 

Soon the last of the fleeing ants had 
passed them and had disappeared in the 
direction of the exit. Diana and Gor- 
don were alone in the dark, perilous tun- 
nels of that strange and hostile city. 

“Let’s get out of here!” Gordon re- 
peated, as he grasped her head with 
his mandibles and tried to drag her back 
to safety. 

“No!” was her determined declara- 
tion. “After coming this far I’m cer- 
tainly not going to quit now. There’s 
something in there — something strange 
— something mysterious — and I’m going 
to find out what it is. Are you coming 
with me, or shall I go alone?” 

Gordon didn’t answer. He merely re- 
leased his hold on her head and crawled 
cautiously along the narrow passage-way 
which led into the very bowels of the 
enemies’ stronghold. 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


67 


CHAPTER X 
The Poisoned Shroud 

AS Gordon crept stealthily onward 
AA he sensed that Diana was close 
behind him. He could even feel 
the soft hairs of her antennae brushing 
against his gaster. He tried to concen- 
trate all his attention into those won- 
derful organs of smell which were lo- 
cated at the tips of his feelers. 

Many scent-images were wafted to 
him — some of them familiar, others so 
strange and weird that they baffled in- 
terpretation. 

Presently he came to a dead ant. With 
his feelers, he examined the body care- 
fully. It seemed to be complete, with 
no members missing or injured, but 
it was doubled and twisted in a manner 
which indicated that it had died in agony. 

Gordon turned to Diana and started 
to signal to her, but before he could once 
more beg her to retreat, she interrupted 
him with : “Come on, boy ! Steady ! 
Don’t lose your nerve now! Never mind 
that corpse! What’s a dead ant more, 
or less? We must advance! We must 
find out what killed our sisters !” 

So Gordon squeezed past the fallen 
ant and pressed forward into the perilous 
tunnel. 

They came upon several more mur- 
dered ants, all of them lying in cramped 
attitudes denoting that their last moments 
had been passed in excruciating pain. 

Then the passage-way widened and 
Cabot caught a clear smell-image of a 
most preposterous creature. Like mem- 
bers of the termite family it had six legs, 
but that was about the only resemblance 
it bore to any other species of insect. 

It seemed to have no jaws, mandibles 
or any other features which even re- 
motely suggested a face. From the clear 
impressions which were carried to his 
antenna, Cabot deduced that the head 


of the monster was as heavy as all the 
rest of its body and was shaped like 
a retort, with a short, flexible tube 
protruding from the place where its face 
should have been. It was one of those 
nightmarish creatures known as probos- 
cidian or syringe termites. 

Behind this weird-looking monstrosity 
five or six of the soft-bodied worker 
termites were busily engaged in cutting 
off its retreat by walling up the tunnel 
which was the only means of reaching 
the interior of the termitarium. 

It was quite apparent that, whether 
it won or lost, this lone defender was 
doomed to be sacrificed for the good 
of the termite community. 

Taking advantage of the widened pas- 
sageway, Diana pushed past Gordon and 
took up a position directly in front of 
him. 

For an instant she stood there, sniff- 
ing the stagnant air with her antennae. 
Then she flashed this signal to her 
companion : 

“What a false alarm that is! It’s just 
a bogey man, made up to frighten ig- 
norant infants. I’m not afraid of that 
old rubber-head! Let’s hurry or those 
workers will have the tunnel walled up 
before we can get through.’’ 

With her mandibles snapping viciously, 
she charged at the grotesque insect. 

What happened then was like a hor- 
rible delirium. 

Just before Diana came within grap- 
pling distance, the soft, bulbous head of 
the termite contracted and forth from 
the orifice a thick stream of auscous, 
noisome fluid squirted. Diana caught 
the full' force of it. Her face, thorax 
and gaster were completely drenched 
by the deadly discharge. 

T he glutinous fluid seemed to disable 
her completely, entangling her legs 
and paralyzing her body. 

Moving stealthily, so as not to invite 


68 


AMAZING STORIES 


another shower of poison from the ter- 
mite defender, Gordon crept to Diana 
and grasped one of her hind legs in 
his mandibles. Then he backed through 
the narrow tunnel, dragging her writh- 
ing body after him. 

Though the distance was only a few 
inches it seemed as if he carried his 
loved one for several miles before a wel- 
come glow told him that he had reached 
the crack in the wall of the termitarium. 

Already the fluid which covered Di- 
ana had begun to congeal, sheathing her 
body in a weird, translucent shroud. 
Fortunately she was still alive, her con- 
vulsive movements indicating that she 
was struggling for breath. 

Frantically, Gordon attacked the 
noxious coating with his thick, spongy 
tongue. The stuff had a vile taste. It 
smelled atrociously. It seared the ten- 
der membrane of his sensitive tongue. 

Disregarding the pain, Gordon con- 
tinued to lick her body, concentrating 
his efforts on the spiracles which marked 
the openings of her tracheae or breath- 
ing tubes, on both sides of her body. 
Finally, with the aid of his mandibles, he 
manage^ to remove enough of the var- 
nish-like coating so that Diana could 
breathe again. 

Meanwhile, some of the workers from 
the Driver army had approached and, 
sizing up the situation with ant-like 
efficiency, set to work to remove the rest 
of the sheathing from their sister’s body. 

In a few minutes the task was com- 
pleted and Diana was as energetic and 
as nonchalant as ever. Her first remark 
to Gordon was : 

“Whew! Now I know how a movie 
actor feels when he gets socked in the 
face with a custard pie!’’ 

Not to be outdone in wisecracking, 
Gordon came back at her with, “Next 
time you crash the gate of a termite’s 
nest you’d better take a can of Flit with 
you.” 


CHAPTER XI 
> 

The Bloom of Death 

O N the way back to the encamp- 
ment of the Driver army, Di- 
ana stopped and began to ex- 
plore the air eagerly with her antennae. 

Gordon went up close to her and tried 
to find out what had arrested her interest. 

“Do you smell that marvelous per- 
fume?” she asked him. “Isn’t it de- 
lightful?” 

Cabot had noticed a strangely allur- 
ing odor and had been attracted by it, 
but he had not permitted it to divert 
his attention from his main purpose, 
which was to find Doctor Thurston. He 
tried once more to induce Diana to Join 
him in this vitally important quest, but 
without success. 

“I can’t be bothered now,” she told 
him. “I must find out where that won- 
derful fragrance comes from. It smells 
so sweet — like the most delicious nectar.” 

She started to climb up the perpen- 
dicular stalk of a plant, and Gordon 
followed close behind her. The per- 
fume became stronger and stronger, 
until it was almost overpowering in its 
intensity. 

Without hesitation, Diana crawled to 
the huge blossom from which the in- 
cense was emanating. It was a bril- 
liant scarlet in color and was shaped like 
the lower end of a saxophone. 

Gordon tried to overtake her and to 
caution her, but he was too late. Straight 
to the edge of the flower she scampered, 
thrusting her sightless head inside. An 
instant later Gordon lost sight of her. 

Then he heard a noise that sounded 
like the cover of a syrup pitcher being 
slammed shut. Startled and horrified, 
he saw a lid-like portion of the flower 
clap against the lips of the corolla, clos- 
ing the orifice tightly and imprisoning 
Diana within the bell-shaped receptacle. 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


69 


Suddenly the explanation of this sur- 
prising occurrence flashed into Cabot’s 
mind. Diana had been captured by an 
African variety of pitcher plant — one 
of those strange flowers which feeds on 
the insects it entices with its fragrance, 
and captures with its cunning trap-like 
mechanism. 

As fast as he could clamber, Gordon 
hurried to the spot where he had seen 
Diana disappear. He tried to pry the 
lid up with his powerful pincers but 
was not able to budge it. 

Crawling down the bulging sides of 
the blossom, he observed, through the 
translucent tissues, that the interior of 
the sack was partly full of liquid. From 
the agitation of this fluid, Gordon de- 
duced that Diana was swimming in it, 
struggling frantically to get out. 

With the fury of desperation, Cabot 
attacked the flower at a point just be- 
low the surface of the liquid. The 
membrane was thick and tough, but it 
was not strong enough for mandibles 
designed to pierce anything from a 
beetle’s armor to an elephant’s hide. 

Soon he had chewed out a hole, 
through which the liquid oozed forth. 
Quiddy and neatly he enlarged the slit 
until it was shaped like a hairpin, with 
a tongue-shaped flap projecting outward 
from the surface of the flower. 

Gripping this projection with his man- 
dibles, Cabot released his hold, permit- 
ting himself to drop suddenly. Gravita- 
tion did the rest. The mass of his body, 
falling like a dead weight, was sufficient 
to rip a long gash in the side of the blos- 
som. Through this breach the liquid 
gushed forth until the floral pitcher was 
empty. 

Hanging there in the direct path of the 
miniature waterfall, Gordon was almost 
anesthetized by the etherial vapors of the 
exotic perfume. But he managed to 
hang on until the torrent had ceased. 

Then he started to climb up the strip 


which he had torn from the flower. Half- 
way up, he turned and looked back to- 
ward the ground. He expected to see 
Diana scampering away to freedom; in- 
stead of which he was alarmed to ob- 
serve her motionless body lying sub- 
merged in a puddle of the lethal nectar. 

Measured in proportion to his ant- 
body, it was a long way to the ground, 
but he decided to risk the drop rather 
than waste precious seconds crawling 
up the flower and down the stalk. 

Thanks to his wings, which slowed 
up his fall, he alighted safely a few 
inches away from Diana. Closing the 
spiracles of his breathing tubes lest he, 
too, should succumb to the overpowering 
incense, he plunged into the puddle 
and floundered to the spot where Diana 
lay. Finally, by dint of strenuous ex- 
ertions, he managed to pull her out of 
the perfumed pool. 

Grasping her head gently with his 
mandibles, he slung her body on his back 
and trotted briskly away until he could 
no longer smell the deadly fragrance. 

Then he deposited her on the grass 
and examined her with his antennae. 
Limp and motionless was her body. She 
did not seem even to be breathing. 

jO EMEMBERING the rules of first 
aid to a drowned or asphyxiated hu- 
man being, he decided, as a sort of for- 
lorn hope, to try artificial respiration. 
Locating the stiomata of her breathing 
tubes, he pressed their sides together 
with his feet and then released the pres- 
sure, permitting the flexible walls of the 
chitin-lined trachea to expand. Rhythm- 
ically and persistently, he continued this 
process, pressing and releasing, pressing 
and releasing, until it seemed as if he 
could no longer move his weary limbs. 

Finally, when he was almost on the 
point of giving up, he fancied he de- 
tected a slight flickering of Diana’s 
antennae. The movement was almost 


70 


AMAZING STORIES 


imperceptible but it was enough to stim- 
ulate his weary body with new hope and 
fresh energy. Assiduously he labored, 
manipulating first one pair of spiracles 
and then another, until all of Diana’s 
breathing tubes were functioning nor- 
mally. 

When she recovered consciousness, her 
first question was, “What happened? 
How did I get out of that beastly flower- 
trap?” 

“You were lucky,” Gordon told her. 
“You got a break.” 

“A break?” she questioned. 

“Yes. A break in the side of the 
pitcher blossom. Something ripped the 
flower open and the liquid gushed out, 
carrying you with it. I found you and 
carried you here.” 

“Gordon, dear, I do believe you are 
fibbing. It was you that gave me the 
break, now wasn’t it?” 

“What difference does it make?” he 
countered. “The important thing is that 
you are alive and safe — ^at least for a 
while.” 

“For which I am very grateful to you, 
Gordon darling. Please forgive me for 
the hateful way I’ve treated you. I 
guess, after all, you are rather handy to 
have around.” 

“Now you are talking like yourself 
— ^your real self — ^your human self !” Ca- 
bot signalled with delight. “If you 
really do think I am useful to you, sup- 
pose you co-operate with me by help- 
ing me to find Doctor Thurston.” 

“Why must you always be bringing 
that up?” she rebuked him. “There is 
plenty of time to think about becoming 
human again. Meanwhile why don’t 
you try to be a good ant and make the 
most of this glorious adventure?” 

Diana had enough of the woman in 
her to avoid giving her lover any undue 
satisfaction — ^the ant-nature also affected 
her. Apparently her female intuition 
told her that something was impending. 


CHAPTER XII 
The Emmet Wedding Day 

AS Diana and Gordon were approach- 
/A ing the body of the murdered 
elephant, they were met by a de- 
tachment of Driver workers. The tiny 
insects, who ordinarily behaved with 
deliberate calmness, even when they were 
attacking a dangerous enemy, now 
seemed obsessed by a strange and in- 
tense agitation. The very atmosphere 
surrounding them seemed to vibrate with 
excitement. 

Immediately they took charge of the 
two ant-humans, pushing, lifting and 
tugging at their cumbersome bodies as 
if it was a matter of life and death for 
them to hasten back to the main body 
of the army. 

At the encampment the same spirit of 
feverish restlessness prevailed. Gordon 
noticed that all the ants had abandoned 
the work of dissecting the elephant’s 
body, although it was only half con- 
sumed. 

Their interest appeared to be concen- 
trated upon the sexed members of the 
populous colony to the utter exclusion 
of all other activities. Even the en- 
ormous and helpless queen mother, who 
ordinarily was surrounded by a retinue 
of loyal maids of honor, was deserted. 
For the time being at least, the eggs, the 
cocoons and the baby antlets had been 
abandoned by the normally devoted 
nurses. 

Nothing seemed to count now but 
those on whom the future of the race de- 
pended — the large virgin females and 
the winged males. 

For a while Gordon was at a loss to 
account for this unusual excitement. 
Diana enlightened him: 

“Don’t you understand?” she sig- 
nalled to him tenderly. “This is our 
wedding day. Soon we are going to 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


71 


be married. Then I shall become the 
mother of thousands, perhaps millions 
of wonderful emmets!” 

“If it had been possible for an ant 
to blush, Gordon’s black, chitin-covered 
face would have turned a flaming scarlet. 

Diana sensed his embarrassment, and 
interpreted it correctly. 

“Why, Gordon!” she chided him. 
“You silly doodle-bug you! Surely, you 
don’t think I am going to marry you, 
do you?” 

“No,” he signalled haltingly. “But 
I certainly hope you won’t marry anyone 
else, either. If you must marry an ant, 
why can’t ” 

She interrupted him with, “Don’t you 
understand, Gordon, dear, that it is ab- 
solutely out of the question for me to 
marry you now?” 

“Why?” 

“Because you are my brother. You 
and I are children of the same mother.” 

“So are all these other males.” 

“Of course they are. That’s why none 
of them will be allowed to mate with 
females belonging to this colony.” 

“Then — how — what — ^where — ” Gor- 
don’s feelers seemed almost to stammer 
as he tapped out these pronouns. 

She interposed: “As a man you may 
be wise, but as an ant you are fright- 
fully stupid. Don’t you understand 
what all this excitement means? We 
are being prepared for our nuptial flight I 
This is the day of days — ^the momentous 
hour when the males of all the Driver 
armies in this great section of the land 
will fly forth to seek brides of the 
same species belonging to colonies other 
than their own.” 

“Do you mean to say that all the male 
Drivers in Africa are going wife-hunt- 
ing at the same instant?” 

“Certainly. And that instant has al- 
most arrived.” 

“Impossible!” he declared. “Such a 
thing could not be!” 


“Why not?” cried Diana in scorn. 

“Because, to do that, it would be 
necessary for the ants to have a method 
of communication equal to our human 
radio systems.” 

“What makes you think the ants 
haven’t such a system?” 

“That would be incredible. It would 
require complicated equipment. There 
is nothing like that here.” 

“Now you are talking like a stupid 
man. Human beings need a lot of ma- 
chinery to communicate with each other 
over a long distance, that is true. But 
perhaps the ants are wiser than human 
beings. Perhaps they know how to 
communicate without a lot of wires and 
coils and tubes.” 

“Do you really think that?” 

“I certainly do. C^n’t you feel it 
yourself ?” 

“Now that you call my attention to 
it, I do have a strange premonition that 
something important is about to happen.” 

“Of course you do. So do all the 
rest of our great nation. So do all the 
other Driver ants within a radius of 
many miles of us. The command has 
gone forth. There is nothing for us to 
do but obey.” 

“The command has gone forth, you 
say ?” 

“Certainly.” 

“And all the Drivers for miles around 
are now getting ready to obey.” 

“They must. All of us must obey the 
call.” 

“Then who issues the call ? Who 
gives the command wliich all the ants 
must obey?” 

“What a silly question. You may as 
well ask who it is that tells the seeds to 
sprout, the flowers to bloom and the fruit 
to ripen.” 

“T)UT that is different. Seeds and 
^ flowers and fruit don’t all start 
to perform their functions simultaneously 


72 


AMAZING STORIES 


— at one particular minute of one partic- 
ular day.” 

“True enough. It isn’t necessary for 
plants to work together like that. But 
with the race of emmets, our very ex- 
istence depends on this great nuptial 
flight taking place from all colonies at 
the same moment.” 

“But how is this moment determined. 
“Who ” 

“Don’t waste your time with such use- 
less speculation,” she interrupted him. 
“What difference does it make who is- 
sues the command and how it is trans- 
mitted? The important thing is that the 
call has gone out. We have all heard 
it and must obey it. You’d better get 
yourself ready. You may have a long, 
hard flight ahead of you.” 

“What do you ,mean by that?” 

“Don’t you Understand? When the 
momentous time comes for the males 
to depart, you must fly forth with your 
brothers. Then you must search until 
you find a beautiful female ant belong- 
ing to another tribe, of Drivers. You 
must marry her. And from that wed- 
ding millions of emmet children may re- 
sult.” 

“How horrible!” he gestured ve- 
hemently. 

“Why do you say that? Can’t you see 
that this is nature’s law? It is just 
as pure, just as sacred as the marriage 
laws of human beings.” 

“And suppose I do marry, in the 
way you have suggested. What then?” 

Assuming an attitude which plainly 
indicated sincere regret, Diana signalled. 
“I am sorry to say that you must then 
die, Gordon, dear. But let us hope that 
your bride will live on to raise a colony. 
Then you will have the satisfaction of 
knowing that you are the father of a 
great nation. Isn’t that worth dying 
for?” 

“I’m not so sure of that,” Cabot 
doubted. 


Just then he felt something nudge 
against him, shoving him gently but 
firmly away from Diana. Looking down 
he saw thirty or forty of the tiny Driver 
workers crowding around him. A sim- 
ilar group had surrounded Diana. 

Like a fleet of diminutive tugs guid- 
ing a giant liner, they pushed and pulled 
at his large, unwieldly body, forcefully 
separating him from his companion. He 
tried to break away from them and re- 
join Diana, but his captors were so 
numerous and so persistent that they 
easily prevented him from doing this. 
They didn’t even permit him to bid his 
loved one farewell. 

CHAPTER XIH 
The Nuptial Flight 

AS soon as Cabot quit trying to es- 
/A cape from his abductors, they be- 
came very gentle and solicitous. 
Swarming all over his head, thorax and 
gaster, they proceeded to groom him like 
stable boys preparing a thoroughbred for 
a horse-show. Some of them cleansed 
the hairy portions of his anatomy, using 
their bristly forelegs as combs and 
brushes. Others licked his body thor- 
oughly, shampooing his head and mas- 
saging his legs and wings with their 
soft, spongy tongues. 

Though he was at first inclined to re- 
sent all this attention, he found it so en- 
joyable that he submitted to it con- 
tentedly. Finally every speck of dust 
had been removed and his chitin armor 
was as clean and glossy as a new patent 
leather shoe. 

When the emmet trainers and beau- 
ticians had completed their work, the 
commissary department of the Driver 
army began to function. One after the 
other, a group of workers waited upon 
him, proffering choice droplets of food 
which they regurgitated from their crops 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


73 


and presented to him with sisterly kisses. 

Reflecting that this would probably be 
his last chance to obtain nourishment, 
Cabot gratefully accepted all these nu- 
tritive gifts until his own crop was full 
almost to the bursting point. He de- 
cided that the fresh juices of elephant 
meat were not such a bad diet for an 
athlete, about to engage in a gruelling 
test of strength and endurance. 

Looking about him, he observed that 
the other male ants and the virgin fe- 
males were being similarly prepared for 
the ordeal which clearly lay before them. 

The spirit of excitement which hither- 
to had been confined to the ants of the 
worker caste, began to take possession of 
the sexed individuals. Some of the 
males unfolded their wings and tried to 
hop off, but the workers swarmed around 
them, clinging to their legs and holding 
them back like a mooring-crew handling 
a Zeppelin. They made it clear to the 
over-eager ones that the propitious mo- 
ment had not yet arrived. 

This continued for several hours, 
until every male and every virgin female 
had repeatedly been cleansed and fed. 

Then, simultaneously and with a 
unanimity that was uncanny, the work- 
ers quit restraining their charges. 
Though he had been watching and listen- 
ing attentively for some time, Gordon 
was not able to detect any motion or 
sound or odor that could possibly be in- 
terpreted as a signal. Yet every indi- 
vidual in that enormous throng of em- 
mets, Including Cabot himself, seemed to 
know unerringly the precise instant when 
the nuptial flight was to start. 

Reflecting upon this amazing phenom- 
enon, Cabot arrived at the conclusion 
that this selection of a time for simul- 
taneous, wholesale marriages of many 
great nations must be one of the great- 
est mysteries and marvels of the insect 
world. Scientists have never been able 
to explain it. Philosophers and theolog- 


ians have tried to account for it by in- 
venting fantastical governing forces, 
such as ‘*the spirit of the formicary,” 
“the invisible power” and “the soul of 
the world” — mere jargon — ^which really 
explains nothing. 

Cabot’s experience as an ant con- 
vinced him that even the emmets them- 
selves do not know who determines the 
moment for the flight, or how the com- 
mand is transmitted to the members of 
the ant communities. 

Of one thing, however, he was quite 
certain. There wasn’t a single individual 
in the entire Driver army who did not 
know when the time had come. And he 
could only infer that the same thing was 
true in other colonies of Army ants. 

The instant they were released by 
their worker sisters, the male ants took 
to their wings like a flock of homing 
pigeons and flew rapidly away. Gor- 
don hopped off with the rest of the 
males, but, instead of departing, he 
flew around in a spiral, warming up his 
wings and searching for Diana. 

Soon after the flight of the males, 
the workers deserted the virgin fe- 
males, leaving them to shift for them- 
selves. Thus forsaken by their intrepid 
body-guards, the emmet maidens, al- 
though they didn’t seem to realize their 
peril, were as defenseless as infants 
against the innumerable foes which in- 
fested the surrounding jungle. 

C ROWDED together in a compact 
throng, they milled about and clam- 
bered over each other in their eagerness 
to fulfill the destiny which nature had 
ordained for them. 

Cabot circled above the seething mob 
of quivering insects, striving to locate the 
one creature that meant so much to 
him. He might as well have tried to 
pick out one individual grain in a car- 
load of wheat. 

Suddenly an ominous smell-image was 


74 


AMAZING STORIES 


wafted to his antennae. It was evident 
that the brides-elect on the ground de- 
tected it also, for their excitement be- 
came so intense that it bordered on 
frenzy. 

The bridegrooms, for whom they had 
waited so avidly, had at last arrived! An 
instant after scenting them, Gordon saw 
several fleets of winged emmets ap- 
proaching simultaneously from different 
directions. 

Soon the air above him was so full 
of flying insects that they clouded the 
sky. As they swooped downward to 
claim their brides, they completely sur- 
rounded him, jostling him and bat- 
tering him with their wings. 

To Gordon, this experience was dis- 
turbing enough, but he soon discovered 
that a far more serious danger was im- 
pending. In the wake of the ardent 
emmet flyers, scores of predatory birds 
made their appearance. It was apparent 
that they had been attracted by this un- 
usual phenomenon and had hurried to 
the trysting place to feast on the deli- 
cious tid-bits they knew would be wait- 
ing for them there. 

Alighting in the midst of the squirm- 
ing throng, the birds wrought havoc on 
the defenseless insects. In a few mo- 
ments most «f the birds had gorged 
themselves so greedily that they could 
not close their beaks. It was a veritable 
slaughter of the imiocents! 

Almost insane with anxiety, Cabot flew 
furiously above tlie scene of carnage, 
hoping against hope — striving to conquer 
his despair — searching forlornly for the 
one he felt certain must already be 
destroyed. 

ALL at once, he caught a flash of yel- 
-tA low, resembling the mark which 
Thurston had painted on Diana’s ant- 
body. Turning sharply, Gordon flew 
back to the place where he thought he 
had seen that significant cross of gold. 


Sure enough ! There she was — alive 
and uninjured — just below him! 

Pointing his head groundward, he 
glided swiftly down, alighting close to 
the ant which he knew harbored Diana’s 
soul. Grasping her firmly with all six of 
his legs, he spread his wings and took to 
the air. 

The heavy burden put a severe strain 
on his unpracticed flying muscles, but 
by dint of strenuous exertion, he man- 
aged to keep aloft. 

As he winged away from that fright- 
ful place of massacre, Gordon heard a 
whirring sound behind him. Turning 
his head he discovered that he was be- 
ing pursued by three of the birds, which 
evidently had not yet satiated their ap- 
petites. He soon realized that his weak, 
flimsy wings were no match for theirs. 
Rapidly they gained on him until the 
leader of the trio was so dose that it 
opened its beak to snap at him. 

CHAPTER XIV 
The Web of Doom 

y^ONG his numerous other accom- 
plishments, Gordon Cabot was a 
•^skilled aviator. As a war-ace 
over the French battlefields, his bold 
daring and matchless stunting had won 
the admiration of friends and foes alike. 

Now, as he found himself fl)dng once 
more, but with no mechanical contriv- 
ances to aid him and with no machine 
guns to fight off enemies which seemed far 
more dangerous than any he had encoun- 
tered during his wartime experiences, he 
was surprised to discover that his knowl- 
edge of aeronautics, acquired through 
tedious days of study and countless hours 
aloft, was of incredible value to him. 

By co-ordinating his wings, his man- 
dibles and his gastcr, he banked sharply, 
executing one of those tail-chasing 
maneuvers which had gotten him out of 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


75 


many a tight pinch during his combafs 
with German aces. 

But the birds also knew how to fly. 

They quickly solved his trick and 
again began to overtake him.. Then he 
went into a series of inside loops. 
Though he was handicapped by his pre- 
cious burden, he managed to elude his 
pursuers for a few minutes longer. Last 
of all, he dove steeply and then zoomed 
up into a perfectly executed Immelmann 
turn, thus reversing his direction of 
flight and, for a while at least, confus- 
ing his opponents. 

All during this stunting, Gordon was 
drawing closer and closer to the jungle 
which surrounded the clearing where 
the elephant had fallen. Blindly he dove 
into a dense mass of vegetation, hoping 
thus to conceal himself and Diana from 
his pursuers. 

He succeeded in escaping from the 
birds, only to find himself beset by a 
still greater danger. In his haste to 
elude his winged opponents, Gordon had 
not noticed a lacy spider web which 
was spread across a gap in the foliage. 
Before he realized what was happening, 
both his body and Diana’s were en- 
meshed in the sticky, silken snare. 

Gordon felt the web vibrate. Strad- 
ding toward him, its murderous fangs 
bared, was an enormous, horrible, hairy 
spider ! 

By a super-emmet effort, Gordon man- 
aged to wrench Diana’s body out of the 
entangling web. When he was sure she 
was free, he released his hold on her, 
permitting her to fall to the ground. 
Thus relieved of his burden, he faced the 
ferocious spider. 

Though the owner of the web had 
an enormous advantage, it did not seem 
particularly eager to close in on its prey. 
Instead, it circled rapidly around it, 
striving to enmesh him still further in 
the threads of silk which issued from 
the spinnerets in its hideous abdomen. 


As fast as new strands were spun 
about him, Gordon severed them with his 
sharp mandibles. Though he wasn’t 
able to free himself completely, he did 
manage to twist about so that the spider 
was constantly kept within sight of his 
keen eyes. 

He watched for a moment when his 
antagonist became careless and came 
within striking distance. Making a sud- 
den lunge, Cabot succeeded in grasping 
a hairy leg with his pincers. With this 
to brace him, he was able to tear him- 
self away from the entangling meshes 
of the web and to clamber quickly upon 
the spider’s back. 

Before his surprised adversary had 
time to do anything about it, Gordon, 
using its back as an airport, launched 
himself into the air and flew blithely 
away. 

His first thought was for his loved 
one. Taking care not to get caught in 
the web again, Gordon flew around 
searching for her. 

T he ant which was Diana had dis- 
appeared ! 

Unable to locate her with his eyes, 
Gordon alighted and explored the ground 
with his antennae. Soon he caught the 
familiar odor of formic acid which told 
him that a Driver ant had passed that 
way. Thanks to his wonderful sense of 
smell, he had no difficulty in following 
her spoor. Something told him that she 
was moving rapidly and that he would 
have to hurry to overtake her. 

At last he caught ‘sight’ of Diana’s 
ant-body. 

He had almost reached her when he 
heard a rustling noise, and a fright- 
ful lizard thrust its sinister, horny head 
out from the underbrush. The reptile 
scented the female ant and sped after 
her. Diana seemed to be utterly ignor- 
ant of her danger. 

His insect body quivering with a min- 


16 


AMAZING STORIES 


gling of fear and fury, Cabot leaped into 
the air and flew after the would-be as- 
sassin. He reached the creature just 
as it was about to shoot out its long 
sticky tongue to capture its prey. 

Disregarding his own danger, Gordon 
hurled himself straight at the reptile’s 
right eye, snapping with his pincers as 
he alighted on the creature’s face. Ob- 
viously startled by this unexpected at- 
tack, the lizard reared up and made a 
savage swipe at him with its taloned 
forepaw. 

Just in time to save himself from 
being crushed, Gordon hopped off his 
precarious perch and darted to Diana. 

For the second time that day he 
wrapped his six wiry legs around her 
and lifted her into the air. 

Despite the menace of the predatory 
birds, Cabot decided that his wisest 
course was to return to the camping 
grounds near the dead elephant. If 
Doctor Thurston was on the job he 
would naturally be searching for the two 
ant-humans in the vicinity of the main 
Driver army. 

Without serious difficulty he found 
his way back to the clearing. 

He had expected to rewitness the dis- 
tressing sc^e of panic and carnage he 
had left a few minutes before. Much 
to his surprise nearly all traces of the 
tragedies which had just been enacted 
there had already been removed. 

The birds had departed. Before leav- 
ing they must have made a good job of 
cleaning up the premises, for not a single 
dead ant was discernible. 

During his search of the wedding- 
field, Cabot noticed something moving 
near the edge of a stone which was em- 
bedded in the earth. Flying closer he 
distinguished one solitary female Driver 
ant. She was busily engaged in digging 
a burrow under the rock. His ant- 
instinct seemed to inform him that she, 
of all that vast throng, had survived 


after mating. Many perils were still 
in store for her before she could start 
raising a new family. But if her luck 
continued it wouldn’t be long until the 
progeny issuing from her fecundated 
body would more than make up for the 
countless numbers of her sisters that 
had been sacrificed. 

Although the spot chosen for the ill- 
fated nuptials was almost as deserted as 
a tomb, there was plenty of activity 
around the body of the elephant, which 
was enveloped in a sable mantle of 
bustling emmets. Obviously unconcerned 
regarding the cataclysm which had de- 
stroyed so many of their brothers and 
sisters, the workers of the Driver nation 
had resumed their stupendous task of 
dissecting the huge carcass. 

F or many minutes Cabot cruised 
about, flying close to the ground with 
his antennae and chordotonal organs 
tensely alert. Not one whiff of the dis- 
tinctive odor, not a single suggestion 
of the organ-like tones, which Thurston 
had agreed to use as signals, could he 
distinguish. 

Finally he was forced to accept the 
ominous conviction that he could not de- 
pend on receiving any help from his 
human acquaintance. His only recourse 
was to attempt the almost impossible task 
of rescuing Diana unaided. 

With this idea in view he exerted his 
flying muscles, striving to gain alti- 
tude so that he could map out the best 
route to follow. 

.For some time the insect which har- 
bored Diana’s soul continued to submit 
to the abduction which had been forced 
upon it. But, as Cabot flew higher and 
higher, his captive began struggling fran- 
tically to free herself. So strenuously 
did she kick and squirm that he was 
afraid she would extricate herself and 
become injured in the fall. 

Rather than risk this, he decided to 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


77 


set her down safely upon terra firma. 

As soon as she was released from 
his grasp, Diana turned to him and be- 
gan exploring his head and thorax with 
her antennae. 

Suddenly she began to tap out this ex- 
cited message: 

“So! It is you, is it? How did you 
dare to do such a thing? I thought you 
were my new husband — a real ant from 
another tribe! I hate you! I can never 
forgive you for doing this to me!” 

Quivering with rage, she tore herself 
away from him and ran madly through 
the jungle. 

Gordon tried to overtake her on foot 
but couldn’t keep up with her. Only 
by taking to his wings did he finally 
succeed in intercepting her. 

Seizing her head gently but firmly 
with his mandibles, he said in the anten- 
na language : “Listen to me ! I’m trying 
to save you! Don’t you understand? 
You are in deadly peril! You must 
let me help you!” 

“You help me?” 

From the contemptuous touch of her 
feelers, Gordon could plainly sense her 
cruel sarcasm as she added : “A fine 
help you have been! You with your 
rotten meddling! You have ruined my 
life! I hate you, I tell you! I hate 
you !” 

“Please don’t say that, dear !” he 
pleaded. “It is that awful ant-nature of 
yours that makes you talk like that. 
Can’t you understand that I am try- 
ing to rescue you from the insect that 
has taken possession of your soul?” 

“I don’t want to be rescued,” she pro- 
tested. “I want to remain as I am — a 
queen ant, destined to become the moth- 
er of a great nation !” 

R ealizing the futility of appealing 
to the human side of her nature, 
Gordon said, “Even if you do want to 
remain in your insect form, you had 


better let me help you. Don’t you 
realize that if you try to wander around 
alone you will be in terrible danger? 
Here in the jungle, away from the pro- 
tection of your army, you are sur- 
rounded by thousands of enemies. 
Snakes, lizards, toads, spiders, birds — 
there are countless numbers of crea- 
tures who are hunting for bugs like 
us. They’ll devour us as soon as they 
catch us.” 

“Coward!” Diana taunted him. “Well, 
I am not afraid. And if you are, all 
you need to do is fly away.” 

Still holding her in the strong grip 
of his mandibles, Gordon said, “But I 
can’t let you do that, dear. Don’t you 
realize that I must stay with you and 
protect you?” 

“Why?” she asked. “Why should you 
bother about me?” 

“Because I love you.” 

Her answer was like a death sen- 
tence: “If you love me you will let me 
go.” 

CHAPTER XV 
In the Pit of the Ant Lion 

y^THOUGH Gordon knew that Di- 
ana — ^the real Diana, who al- 
-^ways was lovable and consid- 
erate and kind to everybody — was not 
accountable for the malevolent utterances 
of her ant-personality, he couldn’t help 
feeling hurt by her unkind words. 

With a final gesture of anguish he re- 
leased his hold on her head and watched 
her dazedly as she rushed away from 
him and disappeared in the brush. After 
all his heroic battles aigainst frightful 
odds — after enduring unspeakable anx- 
iety and anguish — after risking his life 
repeatedly in efforts to save his beloved 
— ^he was now forced to admit defeat. 

For several tortured seconds, he stood 
there alone, numb with despair, hardly 


78 


AMAZING STORIES 


knowing what to do. There was no use 
struggling any further. He might as, 
well resign himself to the inevitable — 
which could only mean sudden death. 

But, though reason told him to quit, 
something far stronger than reason 
forced him to carry on. It was in- 
stinct — ^that all-powerful instinct which 
neither insects nor animals nor human 
beings can resist — ^the instinct of self- 
preservation. 

After all, life was sweet. If he could 
not rescue the creature who meant all 
the world to him, he could at least save 
himself. His newly acquired gift of 
flight aiding him, he still had a fighting 
chance. With reasonable luck he might 
succeed in locating Doctor Thurston’s 
laboratory. If he was especially for- 
tunate, there was a bare possibility that 
he might find the scientist there wait- 
ing for him. Perhaps — Well, anyway it 
was worth trying. 

Forgetting all else save his atavistic 
urge to keep on living, Cabot hopped 
into the air and flew swiftly toward a 
patch of grey sky which marked an 
opening in the dense vengetation. He 
had ascended above the tallest of the 
trees, when he was obsessed by the de- 
sire to see Diana just once again be- 
fore leaving her forever. Consequently 
he dove earthward and circled around 
the spot where he had seen her a few 
moments before. 

Guided by his marvelously efficient 
senses of smell and sight, he soon lo- 
cated her. He was surprised to ob- 
serve that she was no longer running 
away but was standing near the brink 
of a peculiar depression in the sandy 
soil. 

It was no wonder that she had stopped 
to investigate, for the hole in the ground 
was peculiar enough to arrest the in- 
terest of almost any living creature — 
especially a creature belonging to the 
notoriously inquisitive race of ants. 


Cabot tould easily understand Diana’s 
behavior, for he had difficulty in con- 
trolling his own curiosity. Singularly, 
the pit was almost precisely conical in 
shape. Still more remarkable, a foun- 
tain of tiny pebbles was gushing up mys- 
teriously from the inverted apex of the 
cone. 

Only by looking very carefully was he 
able to discover the cause of this amaz- 
ing phenomenon. At the bottom of the 
hole lay a preposterous creature, its body 
almost completely buried in the loose 
sand. Only its head was protruding and 
that was so similar in coloring to the sur- 
rounding gravel that it was almost in- 
visible. 

What a ghastly head it was ! 

Armed with long, murderous pincers, 
it was like a terrifying hallucination of 
a disordered mind. As Gordon watched 
in fascinated horror, he saw the shovel- 
shaped head jerk upward, tossing a spray 
of sand toward the edge of the pit. 

T he sight of this loathsome monster 
brought to Gordon’s mind something 
he had read, about a strange insect 
known as an ant lion, which is said to 
be the most dangerous enemy of the 
Ant People. 

Apparently Diana did not realize her 
peril, for she walked right to the brink 
of the ant lion’s pit. The loose sand 
shifted beneath her feet and she began 
to slide down the precipitous slope. 

Frantically she tried to clamber back 
to firm ground, but her thin legs could 
gain no hold on the treacherous gravel. 
From the bottom of the pit a geyser of 
sand shot up in the air, crashing down 
upon Diana and sending her tumbling 
right into the open jaws of the insect 
assassin. 

From what he knew about ant lions, 
Gordon sensed that Diana’s chances of 
escaping were practically nil. Once an 
ant lion has grasped an ant in its in- 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


79 


exbrable jaws it never lets go until it 
has sucked all the life juices out of its 
victim, after which it invariably throws 
the dry, shrunken carcass out of its trap. 

Instantly and recklessly, Gordon acted. 

There was no time to plan any strat- 
agem or unusual method of attack. The 
system he used was simple and prim- 
ordial. 

Swooping down into the pit, he hurled 
himself at the ant lion. By sheer luck 
he happened to seize the monster at 
the point where its flat, ugly head was 
joined to its body. With strength in- 
spired by desperation, he crunched his 
sharp mandibles together and hung on 
grimly. 

Gordon’s first audacious rush ac- 
complished exactly what he hoped it 
would. The ant lion let go of Diana 
and tried to fasten its scythe-shaped 
mandibles in its new opponent. It re- 
quired all the strength and agility that 
Cabot could muster to prevent the mon- 
ster from getting its deadly grip on him. 

With savage fury, the creature 
squirmed and writhed until Gordon was 
nearly buried in the sand which tumbled 
upon him from the walls of the pit. 
His wings and abdomen were battered 
frightfully, but he clung on doggedly de- 
spite the excruciating punishment which 
the uneven stru^le inflicted on him. 

Once, as the ant lion gawe a partic- 
ularly vicious heave with its shovel- 
shaped head, Gordon thought he saw 
Diana’s body go hurtling up in the air 
and land outside the pit, but of this he 
could not be certain. 

Fortunately, the portion of the ant 
lion’s body into which Cabot had sunk 
his mandibles was a vital spot. After 
several tense minutes of desperate fight- 
ing, its movements became weaker and 
weaker. Finally it quit struggling com- 
pletely and lay limp and motionless. 

Having satisfied himself that the ant 
lion was dead, Cabot searched for Diana. 


Finding no trace of her inside the pit, 
he concluded that her body must have 
been hurled outside the cavity by the 
fury of the ant lion’s struggles. When 
he attempted to fly out of the hole, he 
was alarmed to discover that in the 
cramped space at the bottom of the de- 
pression he could not get purchase 
enough with his wings to lift his body 
into the air. 

He tried to crawl out of the hole, 
but each time he managed to clamber 
up a few steps, the sand gave way be- 
neath his tread and sent him sliding back 
to the bottom again. 

CHAPTER XVI 

The Sting of Death 

K eeping in mind the example of 
the famous spider, Cabot tried 
persistently, not merely nine 
times, but^t least ninety times, to scale 
the baffling walls of his prison. 

His patient efforts, seemingly futile, 
turned out to be his salvation. The re- 
peated caving in of the sandy walls filled 
in the bottom of the conical cavity, level- 
ing it sufficiently so that he was able to 
take off and fly out of the trap. 

At fir^t he could not see Diana, nor 
could he distinguish her familiar scent. 
Yhen a grotesque shadow flitted across 
the ground and a giant wasp came 
swooping downward. With its broad 
wings and long, ridiculously slender 
waist, it reminded Cabot of a home- 
made glider with an outrigger stabilizer. 

Almost before he realized what was 
happening, Gorden saw the wasp alight 
on the body of an insect which lay prone 
on the ground. Gordon recognized the 
wasp’s quarry. It was Diana. He was 
too far away to hurl himself between 
her and her would-be assassin. Hor- 
rified and helpless, he saw the wasp in- 
sert its needle-pointed, gouge-shaped 


80 


AMAZING STORIES 


sting into a vulnerable spot between 
two scales of her chitin armour. With 
the skill of a surgeon administering a 
hypodermic, it injected into the wound 
the poison that meant insensibility to 
any insect. 

Then, holding Diana’s body under its 
belly, with its six legs straddling over 
it, the wasp huntress dragged her prey 
to a hole in the ground which she ev- 
idently had prepared previously. 

All this happened so swiftly that Gor- 
don was almost stunned by the horrible 
suddenness of it. Before he had time 
to fly to the scene of the tragedy, the 
wasp and its victim had disappeared 
within the hole. 

Gordon’s first impulse was to follow 
her into her lair, but a moment of 
thought made him abandon that idea as 
foolishly rash. She was sure to come 
out again and it was far wiser to wait 
for her departure than to risk an 
encounter with such a dangerous foe in 
her own den. 

When the wasp emerged a few sec- 
onds later, it carefully covered up the 
hole it had dug, tamping the soil in place 
with a pebble held between its pincers. 
Gordon watched the spot closely, other- 
wise he would never have been able to 
locate it again after the wasp had fin- 
ished her work. 

As soon as the murderer had de- 
parted, Gordon flew to the covered hole 
and began to dig away the earth with 
his mandibles. Quickly he opened the 
cavity and crawled within. 

There he found the body of his loved 
one. 

At first he thought she was dead, but 
a tremulous quivering of her protruding 
tongue gave him hope that she still 
lived. Tenderly he carried her out of 
the burrow to the open air. There, fol- 
lowing the promptings of his ant in- 
stincts rather than his human intel- 
ligence, he licked her body thoroughly, 


giving special attention to the woimd 
made by the jaws of the ant lion. He 
seemed to understand that the saliva 
secreted by his insect glands was highly 
antiseptic and that no other remedy 
could compare with it. 

Though Gordon knew there was little 
hope that Diana would live more than a 
few seconds longer, he determined that 
he would at least attempt to save what 
was left of her ant-body. 

Enfolding her tenderly in the embrace 
of his six legs, he flapped his tattered 
wings and, by a super-emmet effort man- 
aged to lift her from the ground. Only 
when he was in the air, fighting des- 
perately to keep himself and his burden 
from crashing, did he realize how badly 
he had been injured in his battle with 
the ant lion. 

R acked with pain, tormented with 
grief, his mind wandered back to 
a certain day when, in the midst of a 
big championship polo match, he had 
been thrown from his pony and had sub- 
sequently played two chukkers with a 
broken rib jabbing into his chest and 
with blood from his punctured lung ooz- 
ing between his clenched teeth. 

That experience, harrowing as it 
seemed to be at the time, was insigni- 
ficant in comparison with the agony he 
was now suffering. 

Gamely he flew upward and onward, 
clutching his precious burden with the 
strength of despair. He was fortunate 
enough to locate the path of destruction 
which the doomed elephant had gouged 
out when it stampeded through the brush 
with the m3nriads of tiny Drivers clinging 
to its tortured body. 

Back-tracking along this clearly 
marked trail, Gordon had no difficulty 
in locating the low hanging tree branch 
on which the ant army had pitched its 
first encampment 

From this point, his marvelous sense 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


81 


of direction, inherent in his insent body, 
guided him to the road over which the 
soldiers had built their living tunnel and 
thence through the jungle to the edge 
of the ravine, where they had battled 
with the torrential flood. 

Flying low, so that he could dis- 
tinguish all the landmarks clearly, he 
searched for the place where the army 
had entered the canyon. For a while 
he lost the trail ; but when he came un- 
expectedly upon the deserted home of 
the Farmer-ants he knew he was on the 
right track again. 

Soon he became conscious of an in- 
crease in the humidity which reminded 
him of the river. A few minutes later 
he was fluttering over the muddy waters 
of the Kuanza. 

By this time his wing muscles were 
aching so much from the strenuous ex- 
ertion of keeping his heavy burden 
aloft that each stroke was a torment. 

Finally, a welcome sight met his 
wearied gaze. 

It was the huddle of ramshackle build- 
ings in which he recognized Mrokamda. 

Almost paralyzed with fatigue, he 
used the last remnants of energy in his 
ant body to fly to Doctor Thurston’s 
laboratory and to force his way through 
a crevice in the thatched roof. Flutter- 
ing to the floor, with his precious bur- 
den still clutched in his fagged limbs, 
he trembled convulsively and lost con- 
sciousness. 

CHAPTER XVII 

Human Once More 

W HEN Gordon came to, his first 
sensation was of a low, monot- 
onous drone in his ears. Then 
he heard a click and, before he had 
tiihe to realize where he was, he was 
dragged out of the cabinet. His feet 
touched the floor but his legs were so 


tottery that they crumpled beneath his 
weight. Someone picked him up and 
carried him to a chair. 

Blinking and confused, Gordon looked 
into the face of a man who was totally 
strange to him. 

“I am Doctor Dean,” the stranger said 
in a voice that sounded far away. 

"Dean?” Gordon stammered. “Dean 
— Dean — Doctor Dean.” 

He looked down at his body and was 
astonished to observe that it was human 
in form. He had to feel his legs and 
his head before he could convince him- 
self that he really was a man once more. 

Suddenly he sat up straight, grasp- 
ing Dean’s wrist with a grip that made 
him wince, as he demanded, “What hap- 
pened to Diana? Is she — is she — ” the 
word “dead” trembled on his lips but 
refused to come out. 

“No,” Dean hastened to assure him. 
“She isn’t dead. We found her just in 
time. Doctor Thurston is looking after 
her. See! He is just removing her 
from the transimigrating cabinet!” 

A moment .later Gordon and Diana 
were clasped in each other’s arms. 

“My darling!” he murmured in a 
husky voice. "My precious, precious 
darling.” 

Diana said nothing. 

She began to weep hysterically; but 
there was a smile on her lips which 
seemed to belie her tears. 

Gordon didn’t blame her for crying. 
He felt a bit weepy himself. Two large 
tears — the first he had shed since he was 
a small child — welled up in the corners 
of his eyes and rolled down into the 
four-day growth of beard on his hollow 
cheeks. 

After a while they became conscious 
of the presence of Doctor Thurston and 
his assistant. 

The scientist was almost as deeply 
affected as they were. He kept re- 
peating over and over again, “Thank 


82 


AMAZmC STORIES 


God! Thank God! What a miracle! 
What a miracle!" 

When he could compose himself 
enough to talk coherently he said, “What 
a relief it was when I found you two 
waiting for me here! I had given up in 
despair! I had branded myself as a 
murderer! I was ready to expiate my 
crime by taking my own life, when I 
came back for one last look at my be- 
loved laboratory and here you were. At 
first I feared you were both dead. 
Luckily there was still a spark of life in 
each of your bodies — ^just enough to 
keep your souls from escaping. What 
happened anyway?” 

Gordon gave him a brief accotmt of 
their experiences, omitting all mention 
of Diana’s unwillingness to renounce 
her ant existence. When he related the 
incident of the huntress wasp. Doctor 
Thurston interrupted him with, “That 
accounts for it.” 

“Accounts for what?” 

“It accounts for the condition of Di- 
ana’s antrbody. When I first found her, 
I cxmldn’t understand how she could 
have survived diat terrible wound in 
her gastec, which, from what you have 
just told me, must have been inflicted 
by the antiion. That wasp really saved 
her life.” 

“^AVED her life?” was Gordon’s in- 
13 credulous exclamation. “How 
could that be. Isn’t the sting of a 
wasp absolutely deadly to another in- 
sect?” 

“Not necessarily. From your de- 
scription, the one which stung Diana 
must have been similar to a spex wasp. 
To provide nourishment for her young, 
the female wasp uses an ingeniously 
diabolical plan. After capturing a cater- 
pillar, ant, or other creature, she stings 
it, using a secretion which does not cause 
death, but acts like i drug, paralyzing 
the victim and keeping it alive in- 


definitely, in a state of suspended ani- 
mation. Then she lays an egg upon 
the body of her prey, and hides the 
sleeping insect, with the wasp egg at- 
tached to it, within a burrow dug in the 
earth.” 

“Why does she do that?” 

“Don’t you tmderstand? When her 
grub hatches from the egg, it finds an 
abundance of nutritious meat close at 
hand — meat that is sure to be fresh and 
wholesome — ^because it is alive!” 

“Do you mean to say that if Diana 
had been left in that burrow she would 
have been eaten alive by the wasp’s 
baby?” 

“Precisely.” 

Gordon shuddered. 

Diana hid her face in her hands. 

“Nevertheless,” Doctor Thurston con- 
tinued, “We have the wasp to thank for 
saving Diana’s life.” 

“How do you make that yout?” Gor- 
don asked. 

“Because the drug of her sting pre- 
vented Diana from exerting hereof. If 
she hadn’t been paralyzed she would 
most certainly have succumbed from the 
effect of Ibe ant-lion’s bite,” 

“Thank heaven for that,” Cabot said 
ardently. Then, with a tender glance 
in Diana’s direction, he added, “And 
now, would you two good old scouts 
mind leaving Diana and me alone?” 

“Why, of course,” both Thurston and 
Dean stammered in unison. 

When they had gone, Diana went to 
Gordon, placed her hands on his shoul- 
ders and said simply: “Lover of mine, 
how can you forgive roc?” 

“Forgive you?” he laughed. “What 
are you talking about? There isn't 
anything to forgive, you silly darling, 
you.” 

"Oh, yes, there is, lover of mine. I 
rwnember ever 3 rthing — absolutely every- 
thing. What a beast I was! How des- 
picably I treated you! And how noble 


PERIL AMONG THE DRIVERS 


83 


— how patient — how wonderful you were 
to me through it all!” 

“Please forget all about it,” he begged 
her. 

“How can I forget it? I shall never 
forget! I must talk about it! I must 
try to explain why ” 

“Please, Diana dear! Please don’t 
say such things. Never mind explain- 
ing. I understand.” 

“How could you possibly understand? 
How could you know what it means to 
have a demon take possession of you 
and force you to do what you know is 
wrong? It was horrible, Gordon! The 
most frightful thing about it was that 
I knew exactly what I was doing all the 
time. I didn’t want to do and say those 
terrible things, understand. But that 
awful ant body of mine seemed to 
obtain complete mastery over my human 
soul. It forced me to do what I did. 
I was powerless to prevent it. 

Again she wept. 

Gordon put her arms around her, kiss- 
ing her tear-stained cheeks. 

“^"T^HERE, there, sweetheart. Let’s 

X lot say anything more about it. 
I understand perfectly why you acted 
as you did; and I love you — I love you 
now more than ever before and that’s a 
whole lot, you know.” 

He drew her to a chair and sat down 
with her in his lap, rocking her back 
and forth like a baby. After a long 
period of blissful silence he said, 
“Diana, dear.” 


“Yes, my lover.” 

“How about lolling languidly on that 
California patio of mine?” 

Her answer was prompt and em- 
phatic: “That sure listens swell to me, 
sweetheart.” 

Thus encouraged, he went on, “And 
how about a quiet little wedding as 
soon as we get home?” 

“Of course I’m going to marry you,” 
she murmured as she put her arms 
around his neck and drew his face closer 
to hers, “But not quite yet, darling.” 

“Why not?” 

“Well, you see it is like this: Before 
I get married — before I settle down to 
be the sedate and proper wife of a suc- 
cessful businessman like you — I would 
like to do something really unusual — 
something dangerous — something excit- 
mg. 

Gordon looked at her in amazement 
before he said, “Let me get this 
straight, Diana. As I understand it, 
you’ve been somewhat bored by the 
commonplace life you’ve been living dur- 
ing the past few days; and before you 
marry me you would like to do some- 
thing a bit out of the ordinary. Is 
that the idea?” 

“Yes, lover of mine! That’s the idea 
precisely !” 

Striving to reconcile her astonishing 
words with the inscrutable expression in 
her delphinium-blue eyes, Gordon could 
not be certain whether she really meant 
what she said or was merely trying to 
tease him. 


The End 


84 


Terror Out of Space 

By H. HAVERSTOCK HILL 
PART II 

Our story goes on with the adventures of our four rather wonderfully 
drawn characters with the strange visitors from a distant world. We are 
sure that our readers have been interested in the charming (f) Arabella 
and her rather victimized husband and we are giving our readers further 
details of what happened to the party from the Solomon Islands. 

Illustrated by MOREY 


What Went Before: 

C APTAIN SPAIN and Billy Harper, South 
Sea traders and plantation owners, are 
sitting on the verandah of their bunga- 
low one hot afternoon when they see a strange 
flash in the sky. Mrs. Harper, Mrs. Spain 
and the two men speculate aa to ita cause. 
They condude it must have been some species 
of meteorite. 

Later, on the evening of that same day, a 
strange red ray emerges from the jungle, cut- 
ting a path through the trees, destroying the 
flagstaff and narrowly misatng the bungalow 
itself. The two men, with their manager, 
Retallick, arrange to take watdi, turn and turn 
about, as they begin to_ suspect the strange 
ray may be connected with the supposed me- 
teorite they saw earlier. Spain and Harper 
leave Retallick to take first wateh. 

They awake in broad daylight to find Retallick 
has disappeared. A search inclines them to the 
belief t^t Retallick has gone into that part 
of the jungle from whence the ray oaipe. _ They 
surmise from the indications that be did not 
go of his own free will. Arming themselvea 
and tome of their native retainers, they follow 
the trail through the jungle. They come sud- 
denly on a space ship in a clearmg, and are 
overpowered by strange beings. 

They are taken on board the space-ship, where 
they find Retallick. The space-ship immedi- 
ately sets out for, as they presently learn, the 
planet Mars, from whidi world their captors 
hail. The Martians on acqnaintance turn out 
to be kindly folk, and gradually the tittle party 
grow accustomed to their lot. They learn the 
Martian language and are shown many strange 
scientific wonders. 

Our American friends are talking with Bo- 
Kar about the strange signals heard on their 
radio the night before their unexpected ‘ind- 
napping’' when a resounding note of a gong 
is heard from somewhere in the depths of tiie 
ship, charged with warning and menace. The 
gong means that another space-ship has ma- 
terialized and shown hostile intentions. 


CHAPTER XII 
Combat 

W E met the others com- 
ing down the passage. 
The clanging of the 
huge gong had thor- 
oughly alarmed Marian 
and Arabella, and Spain himself was in 
little better state. Only Retallick' seemed 
to have retained any sort of presence 
of mind, and his main idea was to get 
hold of Noma and find out what it was 
all about 

I told them as briefly as I could the 
little we knew, and I had scarcely fin- 
ished when Norna herself came hurry- 
ing breathlessly towards us. She flung 
a glance at Thrang and myself, and I 
suppose our faces told her a good deal. 

“You know . . . ?” she said. “We 
are attacked.” 

“As bad as that?” I said. “I didn’t 
think it had got as far as that. All your 
father could tell us was that a space 
vessel of hostile aspect was approaching.” 

She nodded quickly — an earth gesture 
she had picked up from Retallick. “The 
gong would have told him that,” she said. 
“But come.” She turned to Thrang. 
“You are taking them to the control 
room?” 


85 





The offensive must be taken before' it was too late, and to that end the fleet 
of spaceships, that they had been secretly building ever since Bo-Kar^s 
experiment had proved successful, would be placed in commission. 



AMAZING STORIES 


86 

“The observation chamber,” he cor- 
rected. 

“I meant that,” she said sharply, 
though I don’t fancy she did mean it. 
“But wrherever you have orders to take 
them, let us go qiuckly.” 

She caught Retallick by the arm and 
almost dragged him forward. An odd 
girl. For all the faint coppery tinge of 
her skin and the alien Martian ways that 
kept cropping up every now and then, 
I could never regard her as other than 
a girl of our own race. She was attrac- 
tive, too, without being beautiful. Had 
I been in Retallick’s shoes I believe I 
should have gone the way he was head- 
ing. But the real test of the girl’s worth 
to my mind lay in the fact that Marian 
and Arabella, after the first shock of her 
strangeness had passed* had taken to her 
more readily than 1 had expected. 

Witkin a very few minutes after the 
gong had sounded we found OUrselveS 
in Ike observation room and groiq)ed 
about one of the basin-like things with 
whidi we had made acquaintance during 
our first few hours on board. The ves- 
sel, of course, was dosely shuttered, the 
whole shell being hermetically sealed, 
and I looked in vain for an)rthing m 
the nature of a pwiscope that transmitted 
the view to the basin. Thrang, how- 
ever, volunteered the information that 
the apparatus was a development of tele- 
vision. Sensitive discs, in whose com- 
position selenium played a part, were 
fixed at stated intervals round the ves- 
sel’s hull, and wires connecting these to 
the basin had been welded through the 
shell. He gave the basin itself a name 
that I can only translate as “vision- 
plate,” but it, will do as well as any 
other, and as such I shall speak of it in 
the future. 

At first we could see only the black- 
ness of the void, punctuated here and 
there by the unwinking brilliancy of the 
stars. Once as we swung around we 


caught for a moment a glimpse of the 
sun — a huge, glowing thing with stream- 
ers of flame thousands of miles long 
fltmg out from it like living, clutching 
tentacles. We saw it but for the mo- 
ment and next instant it was gone as 
our angle shifted, but even that one 
flashing view temporarily blinded us. 

When we looked again, its place in the 
void was occupied by a gleaming, silver 
sphere which seemed to be approaching 
us at an incredible speed. As we watched 
it, some change I could not make out 
seemed to take place. Nothing appeared 
to have altered, yet in some unaccount- 
able fasittOn I was certain a new factor 
had entered on the scene. 

Thrakg touched me on the shoulder. 
I saw that he was wearing something 
like a motorist’s goggles, only the glasses 
seemed so thick as almost to hide the 
eyfes. 

"Put diese on,” he said, handing a 
pair to me. As I took tkam I saw the 
others were already, under Norna’s di- 
rection, adjusting similar glasses. 

I turned to the vision-plate again and 
the thing that had puzzled me now be- 
came apparent. A red ray, not unlike 
that of the Martiwi ship, but deeper- 
toned and more sullen-looldng, so to 
speak, was stabbing out towards it from 
the silver sphere. 

r-' 

“ \ SORT of infra-red ray, outside 
/^ordinary visual frequency,” Thrang 
explained sketchily, for it was no time 
to go into intricate details. “These 
lenses make it viable and at the same 
time nullify its harmful effects on the 
eyes.” 

I could see, from the way the silver 
sphere shifted in the vision-plate, that 
we were trying to dodge the ray, but 
the hostile vessel somehow held to us 
tenaciously, as though that beam were 
a claw digging into our vitals. In spite 
of all our maneuvering we could not 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


avoid it. Yet, though the ray itself 
must have been playing on our outside 
plates, nothing seemed to be happening. 
I should have imagined that by this time 
it would have been manifesting itself 
in some fashion, perhaps by heating up 
our shell. 

But as I looked a thin pencil of green, 
save for the difference in color, like the 
mercury mounting in a thermometer tube, 
began to run up the center of the red 
beam, and shoot out toward us. 

Thrang smothered an exclamation. 

“What is it?” I asked. 

He hesitated. Then: “They’re using 
the low frequency beam as a carrier 
wave of some sort,” he said softly. “I 
don’t know what that green ray is, but 
I fear its possibilities.” 

That, I must say, was not very con- 
soling news. It meant that in Thrang’s 
estimation the Martians possessed no 
weapon capable of countering it. Apart 
from that, this infernal business of fight- 
ing in the void had a side to it that I 
did not relish. On land or sea, if one’s 
vessel of attack be disabled, one still has 
a fighting chance. At sea, even after 
you’re tossed into it, you may be picked 
up by a boat ; on land, at the very worst, 
you can always turn tail and run. 
Whether you get away or not eventually 
of course depends on circumstances and 
your own individual luck. 

But here, with nothing but empty 
space about us, the first shot that got 
home would finish us. It needed only 
one breach in the shell of the ship, and 
our air would pour out and the cold of 
space creep in and freeze us solid. A 
pleasant prospect. 

The green beam must have been flash- 
ing along in its course, but to us 
agonized watchers it seemed to creep. 
Then, when it seemed as if it must surely 
stab through us like a sword of flame, 
something happened. For the moment 
I was not quite sure what it was. 


The ship 

and we were sho^ ^ 
at the same time 

reel about us. pifJfe4fi8UfiS[elv^, u®;) 
frightened and disiiftyi9l^l//but,;5^1^fypv,Kfj 
unharmed, and crp^ie^.^g^ abpH^ %) 
vision-plate. The 
in the same plane y^l» 
to be looking dqjyii3iepv^t3.jvn(jl,.j|lj[)e„5qdj 
beam with the grifjSji raKijpjRisJ^e^ri^jHasK 
stabbing out intgoJth<h,/ie2^ 

Somehow, by whfttucji^pes^tSfTOnflHyfflT!^ 
I did not carcigtp tpW/ 

ourselves loose 

grip of the redK})%ai99fl^;d,3fli^,[^h9jifH}Jg 
power of our rq^qt,tfipgii)cs 
acceleration, had lit^rj^liy hwW ttBtt 
wards. Beneath •,ugr,iJl^ig#vfiir nfPhW. 
rolled a little from 

there was no atmq«)l^e„ji|^#(.jfp,.jC(^rg 
municate concussion„iit 43^j(hpu^^ 

the beams themselve^iafpig^u^h^sf^fipayro 
ried the vibration back;,,J^^|iqr-77^qadi5^, 
her, and again the re 4 ^g^ i)K|ijn^p,5|afea 
bing out in search of us,9t^jiii?|^ 
like a crimson sword of flaiq^.)qg ^.,3 

ffioil j'tjuiA 

O UR commander seemingly. 

idea of seeking safety, 
for the silver sphere wobblenj 
vision-plate ai\d seemed to decrp^p .^f 
size. But if we had hoped to S|l?i^^; 
her off by running away we were to, 
doomed to disappointment, for, far front, 
decreasing in apparent size, the sphere 
maintained its dimensions. For a mo- 
ment it looked as though we were going 
to hold the distance constant, but even 
that was not to be. 

A t a bound, as suddenly as though 
it had been hurled across the void 
from the hand of some cosmic giant, 
the sphere increased in apparent size, 
seemed to grow larger, ever larger, until 
it threatened to fill the whole of the 
vision-plate. The red beam, too, was 
reinforced presently by another and the 


88 


AMAZING STORIES 


two swept out, independently of each oth- 
er, in search of us, as though they were 
trawling the nooks and crannies of space 
for us. In one way we had the advan- 
tage of her. We were between her and 
the sun; she was visible by the light 
reflected from her sides, while we could 
not be seen unless we got in direct sight. 
Even then we would be visible only as 
a black occultation against the flaming 
surface of the sun, too small and too 
difficult a mark from a visual point of 
view to tackle with a sighting shot. 

As against this, however, was the pos- 
sibility that the sphere’s people knew our 
destination. A matter of simple calcula- 
tion would give them the point where 
our line of flight and the orbit of Mars 
must intersect, if we were to reach the 
safe conclusion of our voyage, and all 
she would have to do would be to speed 
ofl? there and intercept us as we Came 
up. That, I believe, was the ewe danger 
Bo-Kar had feared from the very mo- 
ment he discovered the stranger’s pow- 
ers of speed. 

Apart from that, however, the sphere 
had another shot in her locker. She had 
no intention, if it Could be helped, of 
allowing us to get away, and aided by 
her superior mobility she presently took 
a course that it was evident would flush 
us sooner or later. Like a great ball 
of silver she went dancing up and down 
the firmament, weaving against the stars 
a zig-zag course that gave her a chance 
of sighting us at any one of a dozen 
angles, free of the sun’s background. 

The instant she secured a good sight 
of us the beam shot out and gripped 
us; then that fearful green streak began 
to unroll. Our ship lurched over, nose 
to the zenith, and one of our own beams 
went slanting down towards the stran- 
ger. No doubt we had used them earlier 
in the conflict, but it must have been at 
such an angle that they had not come 
within sweep of the vision-plate. But 


now we had a full view of the battle 
of these Titanic forces. 

The two rays were not quite the same 
shade — ours were brighter, if anything — 
and we were able readily to pick out one 
from the other when they clashed. I 
thought at first that the stranger’s su- 
perior power was going to nullify Ours, 
and I watched with a growing feeling 
of apprehension the green streak slowly 
climbing, like a tired man ascending a 
steep hill. Yet after a time it looked as 
though it had reached the limit of its 
effort ; then I fancied it had slipped back 
a trifle. At the very worst we were 
holding it; we had got into neutral. Vic- 
tory would evidently be to whichever 
side could increase its power the quicker. 

A bell clanged in Our room; the note 
was taken up and repeated from post to 
post around the ship; and died away 
in the ffistance in vibrating, menacing 
echoes. 

I looked inquiringly at Thraag, and 
the Martian drew a little closer to me. 

“C|^HEY are taking up all the power 

A the generators can develop,” he said 
quietly. “That is a warning to all de- 
partments to stand-by. All our other 
power apparatus will be depleted, and it 
would lead to accidents if there was no 
warning.” 

For one long-drawn age — in reality it 
was not more than a couple of seconds — 
nothing seemed to happen; then, as we 
watched the figures in the vision-plate, 
our own ray suddenly grew brighter, 
turned to a glowing crimson that even 
with protecting lenses before our eyes 
almost blinded us. The sphere’s beam 
wavered as a stick bends under pressure, 
slewed off to one side and disappeared 
entirely. The sphere itself changed 
from bright silver to brighter gdd, heated 
to a bronze red color, then spun dizzily. 
Our ray, which seemed to be a force as 
well as a beam of radiation, appeared to 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


89 


be pushing it around, as a man will roll 
a barrel. 

Then abruptly pur ray shortened; the 
spinning ceased and something like mol- 
ten rain fell from the sphere. I gasped. 
A huge crack showed in its surface, and 
the vessel itself hung motionless, float- 
ing free in space. 

Even then I did not quite understand 
what had happened, save that I guessed 
that, in some fashion yet tp be explained,( 
our ray had stripped a portion of the 
outer shell of the sphere away and 
cranked the interior lining. But whether 
the sphere itself had been damaged be- 
yond all hope of repair was more than 
I could say. I did not even know if it 
had been put temporarily out of action. 

I asked Thrang if he could tell me, 
but he shook his head. “One cannot 
say,” he said. “It is the first time we 
have ever used this ray in a space battle. 
Even we do not know what it is capable 
of doing.” 

“At least,” said Norna, from across 
the vision-plate, “it has disabled them. 
A portion of the shell seems to have been 
fused away, and there is a crack in the 
inner surface. Whether it extends deep 
enough to let in the cold of space re- 
mains to be seen.“ 

“It doesn’t look to me,” I remarked, 
“as if youif father means that to remain 
long in doubt. Anyway, we’re heading 
straight for the sphere, and it’s growing 
in si?e every second. Possibly he means 
to cruise round her and see what there 
is to be seen.” 

Norna looked up at me with a flash- 
ing glance of her dark eyes. “He’ll do 
more than that,” she said with a note 
of admiration in her voice. “If it is at 
all possible he will put off and board 
her.” 

“But how?” I exclaimed, visions of 
what boarding meant on the seas of qur 
world dancing before my eyes. “It can’t 
be dtme, not with safety. The intense 


cold of outer space . . He stopped 
abruptly. 

Norna shrugged her shoulders. “It 
can be done,” she declared. “You had 
better wait and see, though. It will make 
it clearer than any explanation of mine.” 

We earth people looked at each other 
—all save Retallick, that is — ^he bad eyes 
for no one else but Noroa— and I saw 
doubt, disbelief even, mirrored in Spain’s 
eyes. Arabella, on the other baud, had 
swung round from a complete incredulity 
to a state of mind where she was no 
longer capable of being amazed at any- 
thing. She seemed a trifle dazed, I 
thought, as her eyes met mine, and I 
could have sworn to more than a touch 
of fear in them. Indomitable and all as 
she could be in the New Guinea and Sol- 
omon Island bush, when facing hostile 
tribes or the perils of the jungle, she 
was now in an environment concerning 
which she felt completely at a loss, with 
the play of weapons about which she 
knew nothing, and surrounded by strange 
and incomprehensible forces whose very 
existence, to the average untrained and 
unscientific mind, must have savored of 
black magic. To a greater or less ex- 
tort, according to our several tempera- 
ments, much the same was true of all 
of us. 

A TINKLING bell rang in our room, 
and from some hidden mouthpiece 
a voice spoke some words in Martian 
that I did not quite catch. Norna 
crossed the room to the wall behind her, 
stopped in front of the wire-meshed disc 
on the wall that I had taken to be some 
sort of ventilator. She touched a but- 
ton set beneath it, then spoke in a voice 
too low for us to hear. The answering 
voice, too, had been toned down so that 
it no longer sounded in our ears. 

She turned away from it after a few 
sentences had been exchanged, and faced 
all of us. 


AMAZING STORIES 


9 ^ 

Wfc my father,” she said, and 
I noticed she spoke to us, not to Thrang, 
vi^o wii" standing a little apart. “A 
p^^ fi'^setting out for the sphere. There 
things of interest to see in it. 
T«^’fearth people can come if they wish. 
PSi^self am leading the party.” 

^Retallick stepped to her side. “I’ll 
mkke one,” he said. 

She motioned him away. “I had al- 
ready -decided on you,” she said with a 
distinctly proprietorial air. “Two others 
than you, I meant.” 

She looked around at the rest of us. 
“Quick, make up your minds,” she 
went on. “I will have no delay.” 

Arabella caught at Spain’s arm. “You 
are not to go,” she said in a low voice. 

Norna flung her a glance of contempt. 
“There is no danger,” she said as I 
made a half-hesitant step forward. Truth 
to tell, I was curious to see what the 
sphere held, but the thought of Marian 
tugged at me. But I think Marian must 
have guessed what was passing in my 
mind, for she gave my hand a little 
squeeze, and : “If you’d care to go, 
Billy,” she said softly, “I think I’d 
rather like the experience.” 

“Good.” Norna spoke with a curious 
abruptness. “Come with me, then.” 

Leaving Thrang to look after our com- 
panions who were staying behind, she 
led the way out of the room and down 
the corridor to a door. This she opened 
and beckoned us inside. Around the 
walls were hung what I at first took to 
be some species of divers’ suits, save that 
they were made of metal. Without waste 
of time she handed one out to each of 
us, explaining as she went along how 
each section was donned. 

As she handed me mine she remarked, 
“I am glad you are coming. You have 
more of the scientific spirit than your 
friends.” 

Two attendants who had come in a 
moment after us, helped me and Marian 


on with our suits, while Norna attended 
to Retallick. The suits were made in 
four pieces — ^head, trunk, and each leg 
separate. Though they were constructed 
entirely of some sort of metal through- 
out, they were wonderfully light for 
their size, and tbe interior was lined with 
a material meant to resist extremes of 
temperature. They could also be elec- 
trically heated up to a required degree. 

We were screwed into them with a 
celerity that surprised me, every joint 
was smeared with some quick-drying, 
varnish-like stuff whose particular func- 
tion I discovered later was to seal the 
suits hermetically. A battery, supplying 
the current for the heating wires, was 
adjusted on our backs, an apparatus con- 
taining enough air for six hours was 
attached beside it, the various wires and 
tubes were tested, and at length we 
were passed as ready for the expedition. 

I felt curiously helpless and ungainly, 
but to my surprise, when I attempted to 
move, I found I could do so without 
difficulty. 

“Take one of these” — I started as I 
heard Nona’s voice in my ear — “we may 
need something of the kind, though I 
hope not.” She handed us each one of 
the small ray tubes that seemed to be 
the common lethal weapon with the Mar- 
tians. We had already become acquaint- 
ed with their mechanism, so she had not 
to waste time in explanation. 

“If you wish to speak,” Norna’s voice 
went on, “I can hear you and you can 
hear me. Set in the helmet just below 
your mouth is a diaphragm to pick up 
your words, and receivers are fitted close 
to your ears.” 

Some kind of short range wireless, I 
fancied — ^a convenient arrangement with- 
out which we might have been at a loss 
what to do. As it turned out, it came 
in rather handy. 

“ A LL ready ?” she asked, and on re- 
-iV ceiving our answers in the affirm- 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


91 


ativc she directed us to turn on the 
knolbi ttjat sent heating wn^ent 
thrwgh the suits. AUtnost iqimediately 
I began to feel oyerpowefing^y warm, 
though I knew enough to real«:e that 
the sensation would disappear the mo- 
ment we made contact with the cold of 
space. 

One of the attendants after glanong 
at some dials on the wall, opened a sbwJH 
door near them— not the ojje by which 
we had entered the room— apd one by 
one we passed through. The door closed 
with a clang behind us. For the moment 
we were in darkness. Then a light 
glowed overhead and I heard the hiss of 
escaping air. We were in the air-lock 
apparently, and the air was being 
prtmped out into one oi the rooms be- 
hind us, As the atmosphere thinned the 
suit became less uncomfortably warm, 
and presently even a slight chill was 
noticeable. 

Norna’s voice came again, not so 
strongly this time. “You will each find 
a small pistol at your belts. They are 
reaaion pistols, similar in principle to 
the ship’s rocket engines. They are nec- 
essary to propel us through the void. 
Each pistol has sufficient charges to take 
us to the sphere and back. No one, no 
matter what happens, is to discharge his 
pistol before I give the word. That will 
not be until we have left the ship.” 

I looked about me. There were others 
in the room besides us, the rest of the 
party of the Martians Noma had spoken 
about as going to accompany us. I had 
not heard them enter, but they must 
have followed in close on our heels. 

I stared straight ahead at what I 
guessed was the wall of the ship and 
wondered how long it would be before 
the port was opened. Marian’s voice — 
a small whisper — came tingling in my 
ear. 

“Somehow, Billy,” she confessed 
naively, “I’m not feeling In the least 


afraid. I’m looking forward to the ex- 
periesnee.” 

I would have answared, but at that 
precise instant tfee light bulb above us 
went out and another some distance from 
it glowed out reifiy. 

“Ready,” came Norna’s warning com- 
mand. “The air-kxdc door is about to 
open.” 

Gently, without a sound of any sort, it 
must have slid baeik, for the blank wall 
gf the shell sudd«dy Hj^rtened in color. 
Another second and the inner virall slid 
away in its turn and the cold of space 
reached out and enwrapped us. 

Norna moved forward through the 
opening and we followed her. Abruptly 
the floor beneath my feet ceased to be. 
Where it had been there was nothing but 
an immense blackness spotted with stars. 
A feeling of intense nausea, a sensation 
of falling headlong through space seized 
me, and involuntarily I caught at Mar- 
ian, with some idea of saving myself. 

CHAPTER XIII 

What the Sphere Held 

H ad I given a moment’s thought 
to the matter before I stepped 
off the ship I would have real- 
ized that I could not possibly fall. There 
is no such thing as tangible gravity in 
free space — we felt a little, of course, 
where we were — and where there is no 
gravity a body will float weightless. Yet 
it is not quite correct to say that we were 
entirely free of the forces of gravita- 
tional attraction. Even the ship itself 
must have exerted some pull over us, 
though a very weak one indeed. 

I found that out the instant I clutched 
at Marian. My abrupt movement must 
have upset forces that until then had 
been in a state of equilibrium, fpr we 
floated rather than were flung against the 
ship itself. The delay this occasioned 


92 


AMAZING STORIES 


brought us to the heel of the party, the 
leading members of which had already 
floated some distance away from us. 

“You may use your pistols now.” For 
the moment I had forgotten mine, . but 
Noma’s voice vibrating in the receivers 
at my ears recalled it to me. The work- 
ing qf it was simple, one pressure of 
the trigger to each discharge. It was 
the direction that mattered most. One 
had to hold the pistol pointed in. the di- 
rection from which one was coming, for 
it must be remembered that motion was 
achieved, not by the direct ' discharge 
itself, but, so to speak, by the back kick 
of the released gases.’ 

We had strict orders not to use the 
pistols more than was necessary, so, still 
holding on to Marian with rhy free 
hand, I did not discharge mine again 
until we seemed likely to drift almost to 
a standshill. Our two pistols went off 
together as before, and as we drifted 
backwards I glanced over my shoulder — 
you must remember we were facing the 
ship, with our back to the sphere to 
which we were going — and found that 
we were quite close to it. Two of the 
Martians, whom I took to be Norna 
and Retallick, were already clinging with 
the metal fingers of their suits to the 
edge of the crack in its surface. Seem- 
ingly they had no intention of boarding 
the vessel until all the party arrived. 

We gained the sphere. .Yards of the 
metallic surface had been melted away 
by the heat of our ray; the inner lin- 
ing, which was of a thick, glass-like sub- 
stance that I took to be -fused quartz or 
something very much like it, had cracked 
across until from top to bottom of that 
quarter of the sphere facing us ■ there 
was a rift four to five feet wide. Ice 
had gathered round the edges of the rift. 
I discovered that when I seized in my 
metal covered fingers what I thought was 
a projection of the quartz and it snapped 
off, its outer surface trickling damply 


from the heat of my suit. It was real ice. 

It was just as well that something of 
the sort occurred when it did, for it 
warned us not to trust too much to ap- 
pearances, that what looked like quartz 
might be no more than thin ice, that 
would break under the strain. 

The interior of the sphere was in 
darkness. Peering over the bent shoul- 
ders of those in front of us I could see 
that much, but little more. 

“All ready?” The call from our leader 
echoed in my ears. I responded. I heard 
the murmur of other voices. Then 
Norna grasped the edge of the crack 
and with scarcely an effort raised her- 
self and stepped inside the sphere. Ret- 
allick followed her on the instant, and 
the rest of the Martians poured in after 
them. I handed Marian up to one who 
bent back to help her, and in another 
second we were all standing inside the 
strange space-ship. 

Everything about us was dim. We 
could see strange shapes, whether of 
machinery or beings of some sort I could 
not make out, showing eerily in their 
coverings of ice. So quickly had the 
eternal cold of space entered and en- 
folded them. 

A light snapped on, a portable lamp 
of great power carried by one of 
' the Martians. Its rays swept out, light- 
ing up the chamber into which we had 
entered. Ice, ice everywhere, so that it 
was difficult to say at a glance what lay 
beneath. Machinery, I thought. I could 
not see anything that in any way re- 
sembled what had once been a living 
being. 

The Martians turned curious eyes on 
the machinery, however; apparently it 
differed in many respects from what 
they were used to in their own craft, 
and two of them, the engineers of our 
party, lingered behind for a closer ex- 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


93 


amination, when the rest of us pro- 
ceeded. 

This chamber opened into another that 
it was obvious had been some sort of a 
control room, and here we got our first 
glimpse of our late assailants. I scarcely 
know what I had expected to see, some- 
thing I suppose in one degree or another 
bearing resemblance to the human form, 
but I was hardly prepared for the sight 
that met our eyes. Seated before a bank 
of k^s, not unlike those of a typewrit^', 
was a broad-backed, bent-shouldered fig- 
ure, coal-black even beneath the coat of 
thin ice already farming on the body. A 
squat figure, suggesting in its build 
tremendous muscular power, dressed en- 
tirely in black, I thought. And then I 
looked again and saw that it was not, 
that the body was absolutely unclothed. 

We moved round so that we could see 
the face of this thing, creature or man, 
or whatever it was. Granted that the 
face was twisted and distorted by the 
fear of the cold death so suddenly grip- 
ping it, it must, even in life, have been 
singularly repulsive. The features were 
akin to those of no race I knew, and 
the Martians seemed as much puzzled as 
I was. I don’t quite know how to de- 
scribe the face, yet it is not that I don’t 
retain any clear image of it. I do. At 
times it still haunts me in my dreams. 
Imagine if you can a face carved out 
of coal by a debauched and drug-ridden 
sculptor, a face for all its broadness with 
a curiously satyr-like cast, leering evil 
made incarnate. 

I was not alone in the shudder I gave. 
More than one of the Martians made an 
odd sound of disgust that crackled in 
my ear-phones. 

“Let us go,’’ Norna said abruptly. She 
spoke in a voice that, even allowing for 
the distortion of the ’phones, had a hard 
metallic ring in it. 

She and Retallick came close to me 
as we moved away. 


“God, Harper,’’ said Retallick, “have 
you ever seen anything like it? Of all 
the diabolical faces I’ve ever come 
across. ...” 

“Don’t talk about it,” said Norna 
sharply. “It’s inhiuman, beastly.” She 
gave the lie to her own words the next 
instant. “Did you notice its great size?” 
she ran on. “It would have made two, 
three of any of us.” 

I had noticed that, had I seen to the 
suggestion of strength and power in the 
spread of the huge limbs. Were the old 
legends, the classical tales of half-human 
monsters descending from the skies, 50 
many myths after all? Might they not 
have their basis in an invasion of some 
such abortions as these? 

, Somehow I imagine that they must 
have come from some smaller planet 
than either Mars or earth; I based my 
ideas on their size, thinking that on a 
larger planet they would have been 
crushed by their own weight, but I have 
since learnt that such a conclusion might 
not be altogether fundamentally sound. 
The gravitational pull exerted by a 
planet seems not to depend so much on 
the size as on the mass of the planet. 
For instance, though Neptune is about 
seventeen times the size of earth, and 
object would weigh much the same on 
either planet.* 

Scattered about the ship in the other 
compartments we visited were similar 
forms to the one which had so excited 
our horror in the control room. In all, 
we counted about two hundred of them. 
Under Noma’s orders we kept our eyes 
open for written or pictorial material of 
any sort, as she wanted if possible to get 
some clue to the abode of our late op- 
ponents. 

•Mr. Harper was correa fa this assumption. The 
farsiula for determfafag fae force of gramy on any 

S lanet, taking that on earth as a unit is the mass 
iyided bf the diameter sgaared. In the case he cites, 
Neptune with a mass seventeen times that of earth 
posyasea a diuneter 4.4 times as great. The formula 
apmed — 17 divided by 4.4 squared — gives a gravity 
pull of approximately .9 of that of earth. 


94 


AMAZING STORIES 


I N one room, which from the variety of 
instruments scattered about seemed 
the equivalent of our observation cham- 
ber, we found a number of thin yet 
tough plates of metal, engraved with 
characters that suggested some specimens 
of cuneiform writing I have seen. On 
shelves in the same room were many 
more of these sheets fastened together 
into volumes. Some of them contained 
written or printed matter — it was hard 
to say which it really was — while others 
contained what we took to be charts. All 
of these that we could find we gathered 
up. to be taken back to the Martian, ship 
with us in the hope that an examination 
of them by our experts might, yield 
secrets of some value. The motive power 
of the engines and the secret of the rays 
used would have to be left for another 
occasion, Norna declared, from which I 
concluded that it was her intention to 
have the sphere towed in if at all pos- 
sible. For my part I could not see how 
this was going to be done. The moment 
the sphere came within the radius of 
Mars’ attraction it would crash to the 
surface of the planet. My reasoning 
was sound, with one omission. I had 
not counted on the ability of the Mar- 
tian engineers to counteract the gravita- 
tional attraction of their planet. 

In all we must have spent a good two 
hours in the sphere, and I think on the 
whole our labors were not without re- 
sult. At length Norna seemed to con- 
sider it was time we got back, and I 
was feeling much the same myself. For 
one thing, though we still had a couple 
of hours supply of air left, the space 
suit was beginning to get rather on the 
stuffy side. Probably this was due to 
the heating apparatus, but with so many 
evidences on every side of what havoc 
the spatial cold could cause, I did not 
fiddle with the controls. Marian, too, 
remarked she had a headache, arising 


no doubt from the same source as my 
own discomfort. 

The books we had found in the ob- 
servation room were divided amongst 
us, and we retraced our steps to the 
outer chamber. Our two engineers were 
still there,, lost to all sej*se of time. 
The machinery had apparently enthralled 
them, and they were loath to leave, but 
whatever Norna told them seemed to 
comfort them, for they offered no objec- 
tion when she said we must all return 
now. 

The Martian ship in the interval had 
circled closer to us, and we had not so 
far to go on the return journey. In 
a very few minutes, or so it seemed, we 
were again within the entrance to the 
air-lock; the outer ports closed on us, 
and the air, forced by the pumps, began 
to hiss in and fill the chamber. I was 
never more pleased with anything than 
I was when the space suit was unscrewed 
and I could crawl out of it. But this 
divesting of our metal garments took 
longer than the donning of them had 
done. The stuff used to hermetically 
seal the joints had to be melted first, 
a ticklish job, for it had to be done with 
care, so that the suit itself would not be 
injured. But even that was over at last, 
and we were able to walk away with a 
comfort which we had almost forgotten 
to exist. 

I noticed that while we were getting 
out of our suits, others were climbing 
into theirs. They seemed mechanics of 
a sort, judging from the tools they were 
taking with them, and just as we were 
going out some others came in with a 
roll of thin but strong-looking wire 
cable. Norna remained behind, talking 
to some members of this party, but Ret- 
allick came out with us, and it was from 
him we learnt what was afoot. 

“Bo-Kar has decided,” he told us, “to 
tow the sphere over alongside and see 
what can be done with it. Of course 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


95 


they’re goixig to tow it to Mars if all 
else fails, but they have hopes that they 
may be able to seal it, aiad perhaps in- 
staB geneiutors that will enable it to 
get along under its own power. They 
seem rather remarkable mechacicteis, 
these Martians.’' 

“TF we can judge anything from what 
A we saw over there,” I said grimly, 
“they seem to have machines that our 
fellows here didn’t know how to use. 
And there’s always the chance that in 
tinkering about with machinery you’re 
unfamiliar with, you may solve the secret 
of its working by blowing yourself sky- 
high.” 

“There’s always that,” Retallick ad- 
mitted thoughtfully. 

“Billy” — ^it was Marian who spoke — 
“is there any certainty yet that this was 
the ship that was being called the night 
before we came away?” 

In the excitement of the last few 
hours I had clean forgotten all about 
that. But now she brought the matter 
up, its full significance hit me between 
the eyes like a blow from a clenched 
fist. Bo-Kar had assured us that no 
call from a space-ship had come from 
them, and in the light of recent events 
I had little or no reason to doubt his 
word. His alternative theory, that of 
radio deflection, had gone by the board 
the moment the sphere had appeared, 
and then he had as good as told me that 
my idea about another space ship must 
be correct. 

“Marian, Retallick,” I said huskily, 
and I felt the sweat stand out on my 
forehead in beads at the sheer horror 
of the idea, “if this sphere had anything 
to do with those messages that night, 
it’s almost certain that another of those 
infernal things with its ghastly crew is 
hovering somewhere in the vicinity of 
earth at this very moment. And the 


damnable part of it all is that we can’t 
do anything.” 

For the moment the idea of our own 
planet being overrun by those black 
horrors must have staggered the others, 
then: 

“Billy, Billy, are you quite sure of 
that?” Marian said with a quiver in 
her voice. “There must be some way we 
can warn diem.” 

“Of course there is,” Retallidc cut in. 
“ni put it up to Norna, and see if there 
is anything Bo-Kar can do. You can 
bet your life that if there is, she’ll keep 
him up to it.” 

He came closer to us and lowered his 
voice, glancing about as though he were 
afraid of being overheard. “I don’t 
know whether it has occurred to you,” 
he said slowly, “but it seems to me our 
friends here weren’t as surprised when 
the ^here appeared as they might have 
been.” 

“They’ve lost the capacity for sur- 
prise,” I suggested. 

Retallick shook his head. “Not alto- 
gether,” he declared. “They can keep 
their emotions well in hand though. But 
you must have noticed whenever we 
tried to find out from them whether any 
of the other planets were inhabited by 
intelligent beings, how they always man- 
aged to evade giving a direct answer. I 
think they must have known or suspected 
that their own inter-stellar supremacy 
wouldn’t go long unchallenged, and have 
made preparations accordingly. And if 
you want anything to clinch the argu- 
ment you can find it in the fact that 
though this is admittedly the first suc- 
cessful space-ship they have constructed, 
they have developed methods of inter- 
spatial warfare to such an extent that 
they come victorious and unscathed out 
of the first scrap they have. Which 
is not to mention the further fact that 
they had made every preparation you 
could think of to launch a boarding party 


AMAZING STORIES 


96 

across the void and deal quite effectively 
with a crippled enemy. They knew ex- 
actly what would. happen, and it did!” 

CHAPTER XIV 

The Landing 

A mo ST six weeks from the day 
we had left earth a summons 
‘ came to us from Bo-Kar. We 
went, wondering what new thing had 
transpired. I had long since got over 
my original distrust of the Martians — 
I fancy the matter of the sphere had 
helped me to view them in a different 
light — and I had come to the conclusion 
that their reticences and what I had con- 
ceived as evasions were due more to 
racial characteristics than to any de- 
liberate intention of deceiving us. 

Spain and Arabella, on the other hand, 
had become more and more distrustful 
of them as the days went by. Nothing 
Marion, Retallick or I could say would 
make them budge from this position. 
Quite frankly I could not understand 
their attitude. As long as I had known 
the pair they had been ready mixers, and 
more than once in the course of our joint 
careers we had trusted our lives to the 
good-will of cannibal tribes and got 
away with it. I pointed this out to them. 

Arabella’s answer, which seemed after 
all to hold a modicum of truth in it, 
was, that in the case of the Martians we 
were dealing with beings of another 
world, whose powers compared with 
ours verged on the supernatural, where- 
as on earth we had been dealing with 
human beings whose ways we more or 
less understood, and who were, if any- 
thing, our intellectual inferiors. This 
latter was not strictly true, of course, but 
it gave me some sort of understanding 
of what the Spains had at the backs of 
their minds. For perhaps the first time 
in their careers they found themselves 


in the hands of people to whom they 
were as children in the matter of me- 
chanical attainments. In a word their 
mistrust was as much resentment at a 
situation they could not control, as it was 
anything else. 

Then, too, I imagine that Arabella, 
even though she was unwilling to ad- 
mit it, was rather appalled not only at 
what we had told her about the sphere 
and its contents, but at the new and ter- 
rible weapons of warfare she had seen 
in operation. I found indeed, when I 
talked it over with her later, that she 
had never heard of the Coolidge tube or 
even of the possibilities foreshadowed by 
a logical development of the cathode ray. 
It was news to her that any such ex- 
periments had ever taken place on the 
earth. 

To return to the message that brought 
us into Bo-Kar’s presence. Norna con- 
ducted us to the door of the room where 
we had had our first experience of the 
mind-picture machines, but I noticed 
that she did not come in with us. Bo- 
Kar indeed was the only one of those 
gathered in the room, whom I could say 
I had seen before. The others — two of 
them — were strangers to me, and I saw 
with vague misgivings that they were 
garbed as surgeons ready for an opera- 
tion. An odor of antiseptics of some 
sort intensified the medical atmosphere. 

For one frantic instant the idea flitted 
through my mind that perhaps I had 
been wrong and the Spains right after 
all, and that we were to be used as the 
victims of some horrible vivisection ex- 
periments. But I shook the idea from 
me the next moment. Norna would not 
have been so complacent about the mat- 
ter had anything of the sort been in 
the wind. She must know what was go- 
ing forward, and she certainly would not 
have left Retallick to any such fate with- 
out making some attempt to save him. 

Bo-Kar, with his almost uncanny prop- 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


erty of divining what we were thinking, 
told us in the very first sentence that we 
had nothing to worry about. 

“T T7E are well within the gravita- 

»» tional field of Roca,” he said,” 
and within a few torcas* we should be 
landing at Han, one of our chief cities. 
But before we land it is well that you 
should know something of the condi- 
tions you will have to face. The at- 
mosphere of Roca, for instance, is thin- 
ner than that of your planet, and if you 
were not warned and the necessary pre- 
cautions taken you would find a consid- 
erable strain put on your. hearts and 
lungs.” 

“Do you mean,” said Retallick, “that 
we mightn’t be able to breathe it?” 

“Not quite,” Bo-Kar returned. “We 
are all now breathing air of earth den- 
sity, as we renewed our supplies there, 
and what I have to say applies more or 
less to all of us. All the Rocans on 
board have already been tested, and they 
will not suffer when the air is gradually 
thinned down to the required density. 
But with you . . . well, we do not wish 
to place an undue strain on your organs, 
and it is so that our medical men may 
pronounce on them that you have been 
brought here.” 

“Tell me,” I said, merely from the 
point of view of curiosity, “what would 
happen if you found that anyone of us 
could not stand the reduced air pres- 
sure ?” 

“In tlrat case,” said Bo-Kar solemnly, 
“we would have to provide the unfor- 
tunate person with a special atmosphere 
of her own.” His eyes strayed towards 
Arabella as he spoke, and I wondered if 
he thought she would not pass the test. 

“But how . . .?” I was beginning to 
ask, when he cut me short with a ges- 
ture. 

* Torca: a time measurement that for all practical 
purposes can be taken to correspond roughly to an ^ur 
of our time. 


97 

“We can discuss that when the need 
arises,” he answered. “In the meantime 
may I suggest the doctors are waiting?” 

The rebuff was not altogether unde- 
served, so I made no further attempt to 
extract information from him. I hadn’t 
a chance, anyway, had .1 wished even 
The two doctors came forward, and it 
was then I saw for the first time that 
one of them was a woman. Rather con- 
siderate of Bo-Kar, that. 

I quite expected that the examination 
would be conducted in the room we were 
in, but the woman signed to Marian and 
Arabella, and took them through a door 
leading into another and smaller room. 
Our man, on the other hand, dug out 
something that I thought at first Was a 
sort of improved stethoscope, and ap- 
proached Retallick. 

Retallick looked up and smiled, and 
went to bare his chest, but the doctor 
gravely shook his head, and instead fixed 
one end of the thing on our friend’s 
forehead. The end pieces that in the 
earth stethoscope would be fitted to the 
ears of the doctor apparently played a 
different part here. The doctor put 
them to his eyes. . . . 

Next he examined Retallick’s chest, 
and after that took up a small black 
box from a stand nearby, fixed a sort 
of clip over the patient’s nose and 
asked him to breathe deeply. He made 
sundry adjustments while Retallick was 
complying with instructions, turned 
various little dials on the box, though 
all the while he never took the end- 
pieces away from his eyes. At length 
he removed the nose clip and signed that 
he was finished with Retallick. 

TVA Y own turn came next. I think 
the doctor marked my air of cur- 
iosity, for when it came to sounding my 
chest, before he fixed the clip of the 
box to my nose, he removed the eye- 
pieces, smiled, and clapped them over 


98 


AMAZING STORIES 


my own eyes. What I saw staggered 
me. I was looking inside my own body ! 
I am not biologist enough to under- 
stand all that I saw, or even know what 
it meant, but I had the queer feeling 
of watching my heart and lungs at work. 
It was so vivid indeed that for the mo- 
ment a feeling of nausea seized me. 

The doctor again adjusted the lenses, 
for so I suppose they were, on his own 
eyes, affixed the clip of the black box to 
my nose, and advised me to inhale slowly 
and deeply. I did so. 

Immediately it seemed that my head 
swam, and I had a sensation of gasping 
for air. But that speedily passed, and in 
its place came an odd feeling of exhil- 
aration. I grasped now what was hap- 
pemng. I was being tested for my re- 
actions to graduated doses of the Mar- 
tian atmosphere. It was not unpleasant 
when all was said and done, though I 
deduced from that feeling of exhilaration 
that it had a higher oxygen content than 
earth air. 

We three men had scarcely been put 
through our paces than the other doc- 
tor returned with the women-folk. We 
compared notes while the two doctors 
held some sort of a consultation with 
Bo-Kar. Our experiences had been 
more or less identical, but neither Ara- 
bella nor Marian seemed to have grasped 
the precise significance of the experi- 
ment, so I explained as well as I could. 
Bo-Kar interrupted us in the middle of 
it. 

“You need have little or no fear,” he 
said, “that the atmosphere of our world 
will affect you adversely. Though for 
your own sakes I would warn you 
against undue excitement or violent ex- 
ertion until you have become thoroughly 
acclimatized. Our lighter gravity in 
comparison with yours and the exhilara- 
tion the air seems to cause you might 
lead you to place an undue strain on your 
organs before they have properly ad- 


justed themselves. Your servants will 
also be twted in due course, though I 
have no doubt there will be no tuouWe 
with them.” 

I had given the boys little or no 
thought of late. Once I had satisfied 
myself that they were being well treated 
alid had nothing to worry about I felt I 
had done my duty. But now it came 
back to me that they were in a sense a 
responsibility, and I could not qujte see 
them fitting into any place in the civiliza- 
tion of Mars. No doubt we would have 
to keep a close watch over them to make 
sure they did nothing to offend the sus- 
ceptibilities of the local inhabitant. 

Our own ordeal, however, was not 
quite over. The medicos had not yet 
finished with us, and presently we were 
taken into a sterilizing chamber, where 
ourselves and all our belongings were 
very carefully disinfected. Evidently 
Mars was taking no chances of malig- 
nant germs from other worlds being let 
loose to work havoc amongst her pop- 
ulation. 

T hat done, however, we were free 
to go our ways. Bo-Kar sug- 
gested that, as we were entering the Mar- 
tian atmospheric envelope and the shut- 
ters sealing the side windows were being 
drawn back, we might like to look upon 
the new world we were approaching. It 
was an offer that we gladly accepted. 

Norna joined us in the observation 
room, a curious smile on her face, I 
noticed, as she met Retallick’s eyes, and 
I concluded she had been sent along 
to point out anything of interest to us. 

As we stared about us I was presently 
able to make out some considerable dis- 
tance away from us, but dropping level 
to the planet beneath, the form of the 
sphere. I had knpwn that she had been 
in tow, a comparatively easy operation 
in her almost weightless condition in free 
space, but I had to admit myself piu- 


TERROR OUT OF SFACE 


99 


zled to see her now, apparently pro- 
gressing under her own power. 

Norna, however, solved the mystery 
for us. The Martian engineers, who 
had boarded the sphere, had begun by 
sealing the cracks with their welding 
rays, and once they had made her air- 
tight they installed a number of gravity 
plates. The sphere was now being 
drawn to Mars by the force of the plan- 
et’s attraction, while at the same time the 
gravity plates were being manipulated to 
retard the pull sufficiently to allow of her 
making an easy landing. The same 
method was being used to bring the craft 
we were on safely to the ground. The 
difference between the two vessels in 
actual practice was that our rocket en- 
gines allowed us to cruise if necessary, 
whereas the sphere was more or less in 
the position of a descending balloon. 

In response to another question Norna 
told us that the experts on board had 
made little progress as yet with the 
strange metal books we had found on 
the sphere, and she added with a wry 
smile that she did not expect any def- 
inite result to be reached until they were 
placed in the hands of some Martians in 
Ilan whose names she mentioned. I 
gathered from that that she had no very 
high opinion of the experts we had on 
board. 

W E earth people have always pic- 
tured Mars as a world of red 
deserts covered by a net-work of canals, 
a conception no doubt popularized by the 
work of Schiaparelli and Lowell.* I 
had expected to see thousands of miles 
of gleaming waterways, speckled (here 
and there with green oases. I was 
scarcely prepared for what I saw. There 

* Schiaparelli actually used the word **canaU/ i.e., 
channels, to describe what be saw. The English render- 

ing of the Italian word as *^canalj/’ a cardess trans* 
lauon by the way, has doubtless been responsible for 
the fixed idea that these channels or lines must neces- 
sarily be water-ways. 


were no red deserts, no gleaming water- 
ways of any sort. 

Instead I might have been looking 
down on the roof of a vast greenhouse, 
a conservatory covered with red glass, 
save that it seemed to absorb the rays 
of the sun rather than reflect them. At 
regular intervals what looked like very 
wide canyons showed between the glass 
roofs. I gasped at the sight of it. 
The canals of Mars were not canals at 
all, but wide roads driven north and 
south and east and west in mathemat- 
ically straight lines as far as the eye 
could reach, and dividing up the glass- 
covered area with almost geometrical ex- 
actness. The wide roads themselves 
gave off a glint as of polished stone, and 
every now and then I caught a glimpse 
of some swift, mechanically propelled 
vehicle speeding along one or other of 
them. 

Retallick exclaimed, as we all did, at 
the sight spreading out before our eyes. 

“Why, Norna,’’ he cried, “it looks as 
if your whole planet is under glass.” 

“That,” she said calmly, “is exactly 
what it is.” 

“But why?” I asked. 

“/^UR trouble,” she said slowly, “is 
not so much lack of water as of 
heat. We have a far colder climate on 
the whole than you of earth. During the 
day, even in our equatorial regions part 
of which you see now, the temperature 
seldom rises above fifty degrees.” (Actu- 
ally she gave the figures in Rocan terms, 
but for the sake of clarity I have trans- 
posed them into their equivalent meas- 
ures in English.) “It falls back to 
freezing point by sunset and during the 
night it is very cold indeed.” She gave 
a little shiver. “Nearer the polar re- 
gions we sometimes have in the neigh- 
borhood of one hundred and twenty de- 
grees of frost. Centuries ago when it 
was seen that our planet must one day 


100 


AMAZING STORIES 


succumb to the great cold over the great- 
er part of its surface, our scientists set 
to work to devise some means of com- 
bating the danger, and as far as possible 
conserving the sun’s heat. At last after 
much experimenting they hit on the 
glass .you see. Its outer surface is dull 
and absorbs all the energy of the sun- 
light, the inner surface is so prepared 
that it prevents the trapped sunlight 
from radiating back into space. Practi- 
cally all the habitable area of our planet 
is covered Aus.” 

“But that doesn’t mean,” I said, “that 
you are more or less like prisoners in a 
vast glass house?” 

“Not altogether,” she told us. “In 
certain parts of the planet all the year 
round, and in other parts at certain 
seasons of the year, it is possible in the 
day time to open large sections of the 
glass. But of course the cultivated area 
must be kept covered always and the 
temperature properly regulated.” 

“And water?” I asked her. “I don’t 
see any anywhere.” 

“Have I not told you,” she returned 
with a little movement of impatience, 
“that it is the cold we have to combat? 
We have no lack of water, though we 
know it best in solid form as ice, for it 
is on the polar ice-caps we rely for our 
greatest supplies. Still at certain sea- 
sons of the year, we do get rain and 
what there is of it is caught and con- 
served against need. For the rest at 
stations we have on the edge of the 
polar caps the ice is melted and piped 
underground all over the planet.” 

Marian exclaimed and caught my arm. 
“Look,” she cried, “the roof seems to 
be opening!” 

I looked where she pointed, and sure 
enough a large section of the glass roof 
was sliding away, revealing beneath a 
great patch of greensward. I could dim- 
ly distinguish the faint, spidery figures of 


Martians themselves, scattered about the 
green. 

“That,” said Norna,” is where we 
land.” 

Slowly we settled into the great maw 
the op«iing in the glass had revealed; 
with marvellous exactness brought up in 
the dead centre of the green, and sank 
gently to rest on Martian soil. The 
sphere followed a little more dumwly 
because of the diffionlty of nianoeuvring 
so m;^iAly a craft in such a limited 
space. Nevertheless it at lengdi landed 
a hundred yards away from us. 

The glass sections slid tp again above 
our heads, shutting out the yellow sun- 
light, and leaving us bathed in a warm 
crimson glow that somehow felt curious- 
ly soothing to our nerves as much as to 
our eyes. Perhaps that was because in 
filtering the light through the glass they 
had managed to deprive it of its harm- 
ful undulations. 

A few minutes later the great ports of 
the space-ship were thrown open and 
our little party, conducted by Bo-Kar, 
Norna and our old friend Thrang, 
stepped out, and for the first time in the 
history of our world men of our race 
and color set foot on the soil of an alien 
planet. 

CHAPTER XV 

The Second Satellite 

O UR arrival was expected, and all 
possible arrangements had been 
made in advance. For the past 
couple of days an almost constant stream 
of messages had been going out to the 
shore stations, giving the fullest details 
of the trip. 

The emotion of curiosity, long dor- 
mant in a world as old, as settled and 
as orderly as Mars, had been kindled 
again by the news that not only was the 
returning space-ship bringing with it 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


101 


specimens of intelligent and reasonably 
advanced human life from the planet 
earth, but that it had also fought with, 
overcome and captured an inter-space 
vessel hailing from some as yet unidenti- 
fied body of the cosmos. 

So great was the interest shown in us 
that scarcely had we set foot to ground 
when we were met by a battery of whir- 
ring machines from portions of which 
great sparks flickered. Norna had 
warned us in advance that moving and 
talking pictures would undoubtedly be 
taken of us at the first opportunity, so 
we knew what to expect. Still it was a 
curious sensation to stand there and to 
realize that we, who had been more or 
less nonentities at home, would pres- 
ently have our living, speaking likeness 
flashed around the- whole circumference 
of the planet. A world would halt in 
its work to watch and listen to us. 

We each said a few appropriate words, 
spoken in halting Rocan, and then in 
English, the whirring machines stopped, 
the flashing sparks died away, and, feel- 
ing very much as animals must feel at 
the Zoo, we were hurried by our escort 
away from the fire of thousands of 
curious eyes. 

In a half-dazed condition, both from 
the crowds and the unwonted exhilara- 
tion of the strange Martian air, we were 
taken into a building that it was ex- 
plained to us was a species of rest-house, 
not unlike one of our hotels, and given 
a chance to collect our thoughts. Rooms 
had been set apart for our requirements, 
and obliging Martian attendants ex- 
plained the workings of the establishm.ent 
to us. 

Some time later when we had cleaned 
the metaphorical dust of travel from 
ourselves and had made a meal of sorts, 
we gathered in the common room. None 
of us had the faintest idea what was 
going to happen next. 


“TT THAT I would like to know,” said 

VV Arabella, “is what’s going to be 
done with us. The sooner we can get 
back to earth the better I’ll be pleased. 
I’ve no fancy for ending my days in a 
greenhouse.” That was her contempt- 
uous reference to the fact that the 
greater part of the planet was roofed in 
with glass, from which I gathered that 
she had recovered some of her old fight- 
ing spirit, now that she felt her feet once 
more on some kind of earth. 

“I’m very much afraid,” her hus- 
band told her, “that for once we’re not 
our own masters. It strikes me we’ll 
have to stay here just as long as our 
hosts think fit. I guess I’ve seen worse 
than they, though. My opinion of them 
has changed a bit recently. I suppose 
it’s because we’re beginning to feel more 
at home with them.” 

“If you’d only get over the idea that 
they’re regarding you as prisoners, you’d 
get on even better with them,” Retallick 
said bluntly. 

Spain swung round on him. “It’s all 
right for you to talk, young fellow,” he 
said, not without reason. “You seem to 
have established rather special claims to 
their regard.” 

Retallick grinned cheerfully. “ I sup- 
pose you’re referring to Norna. Well, 
you’re right in that as far as it goes. But 
Norna isn’t the whole Rocan nation, you 
must understand, and her own influence 
mightn’t extend far beyond her own 
family. We’ll see though when we de- 
cide what to do. Up to date we haven’t 
made up our minds whether to stop here 
for good or go back and live on earth.” 

“Then,” I said, “it is decided that 
we are going back?” In my own mind 
I had little or no doubt of the ultimate 
outcome, but I felt like having my ideas 
confirmed if it was at all possible. 

Retallick nodded. “You don’t think 
they intend to keep you here for good, 
do you?” he retorted. “We’re a curios- 


102 


AMAZING STORIES 


ity at present, but that will soon wear 
off. I can't imagine anyone wanting to 
keep us here for the sake of our com- 
pany." 

“You speak for yourself,’^ said Ara- 
bella acidly. “I haven't come to roy time 
of life to have things like ttet hinted at 
me. I know my tongue ” 

“Never njind that now, Arabella,’' 
Spain interposed. I fancy he was afraid 
of antagonizing RetolUek, whom he no 
doubt regarded now as a sort of friend 
at court. “I’m sure Mr. Rotalljck didn’t 
mean anything of the sort.” 

“Of course, I didn’t." Retall«ic said, 
“and only a . . .’’ He bit the sentsnce 
off quickly, as though he suddenly real- 
ized that the less said the better for the 
sake of peace. 

I tried to pour oil on troubled wa- 
ters. “You were saying something about 
the possibilities of returning to earth 
once they’d got over their initial curios- 
ity about us," I remarked. “I don’t sup- 
pose you’re talking altogether without 
the book— I mean you’re most likely re- 
peating what you and Noma have al- 
ready discussed between you — but have 
you any way of getting a rough idea of 
when our return is likely to take place? 
In other words is our stay here going 
to be a matter of weeks, months or 
years ?’’ 

H IS face clouded at that. “You’re 
right," he said, slowly, “in think- 
ing that Norna and I have talked it 
over, and that she’s told me practically 
all she knows. There’s no doubt what- 
ever that the Rocans mean to return us 
to earth, as soon as they conveniently 
can. But there’s a snag in the way, 
and I think I’d better put it as bluntly 
as possible. The duration of our stay 
depends on what their experts discover 
when they’ve had a chance to thoroughly 
study the sphere and what we found in 
it." 


“But what’s that got to do with us?" 
I protested. 

“I don’t know," he admitted ruefully, 
"and Norna wasn’t able to learn eitbcT. 
But she did tell me she overheard some 
of the experts comparing notes and from 
what she could make out they seemed to 
be discussing what they called ‘the sec- 
ond satellite.’ ’’ j 

The thought of Mars’ two moons, 
Phobps and Deimos, jumped to my mind 
instantly. I essplained. “That’s probably 
what was meant," I suggested, “but 
which of them tihey’d call the 6rst and 
which the second is beyond me.” 

“That would simplify things im- 
mensely, if that was the case," Ret- 
allick told us. “But it looks as if you’re 
away off the track, Harper. Norna was 
emphatic that they were referring to 
earth.’’ 

“But that’s all bosh,” I said sharply. 
“We’ve only the one satellite, the moon. 
If we had another we’d have known 
about it long ago. I’m sure Norna’s 
slipped up on that for once.” 

“That’s what I thought,” Retallick ad- 
mitted, “but as the idea didn’t occur to 
me until after we’d finished talking, I 
haven’t had a chance yet of putting it 
up to her.” 

“I see. By the way,” I went on 
curiously, “how do you happen to know 
so much of what has transpired in the 
last hour or so? It appears to me that 
you’ve been talking of things that must 
have occurred since we were brought in 
here, and I’m willing to swear that 
Norna hasn’t been along or that you 
haven’t been out to see her in the in- 
terval ?” 

“Quite correct,” said Retallick, agree- 
ably. “If you do care to swear to it, 
you won’t be committing perjury. Never- 
theless we have seen and talked to each 
Other in the interval.” 

I was nearly going to point out to 
him that one statement directly contra- 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


103 


dieted the other, but I looked at him 
agaih and decided I had better let him 
explain before I said what was in my 
mind. 

“But how?” I asked. 

“Voice and vision,” he said “A sort 
of general communicator affair, a com- 
bination of telephone and television. 
There’s one in every room. I wonder 
they didn’t show you.” 

He glanced round him, finally point- 
ing to a plate of opaque glass set into 
the wall. There were some buttons to 
one side of it, but I had not noticed 
them before. The thing itself had looked 
to me like some sort of a ventilator, but, 
as I knew nothing about its precise func- 
tions, I had taken care to leave it alone. 

“That’s one,” Retallick informed us. 
“Like to see it at work?” 

He did not wait for an answer, but 
crossed the room to the glass screen and 
examined the various buttons beside it. 
Each was colored differently from the 
others, probably to denote its particular 
function. He selected the red one at 
length. 

“That links us up with a sort of gen- 
eral news-service, I believe,” he said. “I 
vote we see what’s going on.” 

ahead,” I told him. After all it 
was a new experience and at the 
worst might keep us from thinking too 
much about ourselves. 

It did nothing of the sort. On the 
contrary. 

Retallick pressed the red button. The 
opacity of the screen suddenly van- 
ished, and it lit up exactly like the stage 
of a theatre just before the curtain rises. 
I had a sense of vague shapes, too dim 
for recognition, moving against the 
lighted background. 

A voice boomed out so suddenly and 
so realistically that we started. The 
speaker might have been in the room 
beside us, his enunciation was so clear. 


He spoke a trifle quickly, however, and 
it was not easy for us to follow what he 
was saying. I gathered though that he 
was announcing some interesting item of 
news, for there was a suppressed eager- 
ness in his voice that communicated it- 
self to us. 

On a final flourish of words, some- 
thing like ‘Let them speak for them- 
selevs,’ the voice faded out. The screen 
began to glow more brightly; a scene 
became visible, then figures, and lastly 
a confused murmur of voices. 

“Why,” cried Marian abruptly, “it’s 
the landing!” 

So it was. We could see the crowd 
awaiting the arrival of the space-ship 
and the sphere, and high up in the thin 
clear air the two craft themselves, the 
one glowing and golden, the other bat- 
tered, silver, round, gashed by a dark 
streak where the Martian engineers had 
sealed the crack. 

A perfect landing both vessels alight- 
ing as easily as swooping birds, then the 
door of the space-ship swung open dis- 
gorging its human complement. Bo-Kar 
appeared in the foreground. He halted 
a moment, his face grew larger as the 
eye-pieces of the recording machines 
focussed on him, and he said a few 
words of greeting and explanation to the 
Martian nation. A successful trip, con- 
tact with new peoples, specimens brought 
back, and an adventure or two: that was 
the sum and substance of what he said. 
A flash and he was gone, the screen 
showing blank for a moment. 

It lighted up again almost instantly. 
The eye-pieces this time had concen- 
trated on the little group of five of us. 

Retallick chuckled softly, as the hu- 
mor of the sight tickled him. 

“Good God,” said Spain, “did we real- 
ly look like that?” 

I stared at our screened figures with 
distaste. We looked awkward and un- 
certain in our movements; our stained 


104 


AMAZING STOHIBS 


and dilapidated earth clothes formed a 
disreputable contrast to the loose, 
brightly colored tunics and shorts of the 
Martians. Spain's face was twisted inio 
a grin; his wife looked grim, and, I 
was surprised to see, even formidable in 
a way. For myself I can say nothing 
very good. My eyes were screwed up, 
no doubt to shield them from the flash- 
ing sparks of the recording machines, 
and altogether I wore an expression of 
somnolent bewHdermwit, as though I had 
just been roused from a sound sleep and 
had not yet got my bearings. Marian 
looked better; there was a calmness and 
a sort of sweet placidity about her face 
that more than atoned for my own looks. 
Retallick, however, showed up the best 
of us all. The man should have been a 
film actor. 

It was given to him to cap it all with 
a final insult. “IMsgusting lot of beg- 
gars, aren’t we?” he said, quite well 
aware that, Marian excepted, he was 
the only one to show up to any ad- 
vantage. 

Nobody answered. The one thought 
that must have run through all our 
minds was a shocked, “Do I really look 
like that?” 

But there was worse to follow. I had 
forgotten the few words we had been 
asked to say. Our own voices came back 
in judgment on us. The clipped quaint 
Rocan we used, the English version 
sounding so horribly banal and unin- 
spired, mocked at us from the annun- 
ciator by the side of the screen. If any- 
thing was needed to prick the bladder of 
our pride we found it in that last final 
touch. 

“"VTICE representatives of earth we 
N are," I said with an edge of sar- 
casm in my voice. “What a picture to 
give the Martians as representative of 
our race!” 

Marian caught my arm. “Look,” she 


said, “there are our Solomon boys now.” 

We had faded from the screen, and in 
our place came our half-dozen native 
boys, frightened, bewildered, unable to 
understand what it was all about, tr)dng 
desperately to adjust themselves to this 
planet with the thin, exhilarating air and 
the surprisingly lessened gravitational 
pull. Our attempts not to take liberties 
with our lighter weight had resulted in 
making us look awkward. Every move- 
ment or geature the boys made on the 
the other hand landed them in queer 
difficulties; they made no allowance for 
the fact that less muscular exertion was 
required on Mars to get the same re- 
sult as on earth. 

Even thor muttered scared sentences 
had been recorded by the machines. As 
they faded away I caught the tag-end of 
a remark from Narada to the effect 
that this was a world of devils and that 
they, meaning the boys, were all be- 
witched. 

“Switch it off, for Heaven’s sake,” 
Arabella said. “Enough of that goes a 
long way, Mr. Retallick.” 

He held his hand up for silence as the 
voice of the announcer boomed out again, 
and the screen darkened momentarily. 

“Just a minute,” he said in a quick 
whisper. “I fancy there’s something in- 
teresting coming through. About the 
sphere,” he added. 

He picked up Rocan more readily than 
the rest of us; he seemed to have a nat- 
ural aptitude for languages, besides 
which he had had rather more practice, 
whispering sweet nothings to Noma, I 
suppose, than we had been able to get, 
so we had to rely a good deal on his 
interpretation of what followed. I could 
catch the general drift of it, however, 
and my own version agreed in essentials 
with his. 

First the sphere moved into the cen- 
tre of the screen, with the announcer 
explaining it all as it went along. Then 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


105 


close-ups were shown of various por- 
tions of the interior, the giant engines, 
the chart- and observation- rooms, and 
last but not least the grim figure of that 
gigantic unclothed black sprawling in 
frozen death across the table at which he 
had been working, when the cold of 
space crept in and caught him in its 

grip- 

It was the first Spain and Arabella 
had seen of our late antagonist and they 
exclaimed in horror and disgust, but the 
fascination of the sight kept their eyes 
glued to the screen. Even we, who had 
been on board the sphere and seen the 
actual scenes with our own eyes, were 
hardly less affected. 

I’ve no intention of giving a mere 
catalogue of all we saw, of the metal 
books and so on, all to the accompani- 
ment of the running comment and ex- 
planation of the announcer. Enough to 
say that at the end, after enlarged sec- 
tions of plates from some of the books 
had been shown for the benefit of the 
planet-wide audience, we were given 
some of the conclusions the experts had 
apparently drawn in the limited time at 
their disposal. 

From what we heard we gathered that 
the experts had not yet been able to de- 
cipher the conventional signs in which 
the books were printed — mentally, I de- 
cided it might yet be an altogether im- 
possible task — ^but from the illustrated 
matter they had drawn certain conclu- 
sions, and when to these they added 
facts discovered by the Rocan anatom- 
ists who had overhauled the bodies of 
the sphere’s crew they felt justified in 
publishing their results. 

T O our way of thinking their con- 
clusions, if at all reliable, were 
startling indeed, but apparently the Ro- 
can scientists did not think so, for the 
report was put over in a way that sug- 
gested that they were dealing with more 


or less commonplace matters. For in- 
stance, it seemed a matter of common 
knowledge that earth possessed two 
satellites, Vinto, the moon, that is, and 
another they called Ados. 

“But, of course,” I remarked, “that’s 
all bosh, Our astronomers would have 
found that out long ago, if that were the 
case.” 

The others were inclined to agree with 
me, particularly Arabella, whose instinct 
it was to deny the existence of any- 
thing she couldn't see with her own eyes. 

For generations, the announcer went 
on, the Rocan astronomers had known 
this, but they had never looked on Ados 
as a possible abode of life. Such obser- 
cations as they were able to make from 
such a vast distance had led them to be- 
lieve that Ados, like the moon, was a 
dead world. The recent expedition had 
to some extent confirmed this, though 
it had made no attempt to go near Ados, 
but had contented itself solely with in- 
vestigating the possibilities of the moon 
as a source of desirable minerals. 

Charts discovered in the metal books, 
however) had provided convincing evi- 
dence that the sphere had hailed from 
the second satellite, and further illus- 
trations justified the deduction that the 
inhabitants possessed a fairly high if 
somewhat ruthless type of civilization. 
The reasonable supposition was that any 
operations of a war-like character, the 
Adosians contemplated, were more likely 
to be directed against earth than Mars, 
but, the report went on, if anything of 
the sort was projected the people of 
Roca, for a number of reasons, could not 
stand aloof. 

It must not be supposed that the 
sphere captured was the only one in ex- 
istence, indeed from certain indications 
—this I took to be a reference to what I 
had told Bo-Kar about the calls I had 
heard — it was reasonable to conclude 
that others were at large. If that was 


106 


AMAZING STORIES 


so, they must be dealt with as speedily 
as possible. 

The reasons summed up, why Mars 
had to take an active part in clearing the 
void of a possible -menace, were more 
or less as follows: The Rocans meant 
to establish an oupost on the moon, and 
possibly later a mining colony, and this 
was almost certain to lead to conflict 
with the Adosians, before or after they 
made their supposititious move against 
earth. The peoples of the planet, earth, 
were disorganized, to the extent that 
they consisted of many and varied races, 
most insanely jealous and distrustful of 
each other, and with absolutely no means 
of making provision for inter-spatial 
warfare, and in consequence would fall 
an easy prey to the invader. None the 
less they were more closely akin to the 
Rocans than were the inhabitants of 
Ados, and for that reason sympathy 
would incline towards them. Again any 
race of planetarians bent solely on ruth- 
less conquest was a menace to the rest 
of the solar system, and such a race 
must be deprived of their power to in- 
flict harm on their neighbors in . space. 
That 'the Adosians were not merely 
harmless explorers, was amply clear 
from the fact that they had taken no 
notice of the Rocan signals, which to 
any intefligent being would have indi- 
cated the space-ship’s peaceful inten- 
tions, but had gone out of their way to 
initiate hostilities. 

Personally, I thought I saw a flaw in 
the reasoning there, but since it told in 
our favor rather than against us it was 
not wise to raise the question. 

The actual report ended on the note 
above, but certain other details of in- 
terest, apparently emanating from anoth- 
er source, were added for the further 
enlightenment of listeners. For the first 
time I learnt not only that the earth had 
a second satellite, but was able to get 
some particulars of it, and presently, as 


we listened, a plausible reason why our 
astronomers were unaware of its exis- 
tence made its appearance. 

A dos, we heard, had a diameter 
. roughly two-thirds of that of the 
moon, but size for size its mass was 
considerably less. No wonder then 
that the Adosians had been built so mas- 
sively. They would need fairly heavy 
bodies to anchor them to a planet with 
such a light gravitational pull as theirs 
must possess. Like the moon, too. Ados 
moved continually with the one face 
presented outwards and the other turned 
in the direction of the earth. In other 
worcls it made a complete revolution on 
its own axis once in twenty-eight days, a 
period exactly coinciding with the moon’s 
axial revolution, with the result that as 
the moon circled round the earth Ados 
proceeded behind it, ever masked by the 
bulk of Luna from the prying telescopes 
of terrestrial astronomers. I did not 
quite grasp the significance of the mean 
distances given ; they were in Rocan 
terms with which I was as yet not very 
well acquainted, but as I had occasion 
later to obtain them I might as well give 
them here in their proper place. 

From calculations made by the Mar- 
tian astronomers it seemed that Ados 
was roughly 370,000 miles from the 
moon, which gave her a mean distance 
of approximately 620,000 miles from the 
earth. A dark planet, seemingly a dead 
world, for ever occulted by our major 
satellite, she had been observed for years 
by the Martians ; now it seemed that 
some hidden life in it had decided to 
make itself manifest. I would have 
liked to have heard more about this mys- 
terious neighbor of ours, but the an- 
nouncer was talking to a Martian audi- 
ence, already informed on many points 
of which we were ignorant, and his work 
done he cut out. 

It was impossible, much as I would 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


107 


have liked it, to doubt the figures we had 
heard. The Martians were ahead of us 
in stellar observation and their knowl- 
edge of celestial mechanics seemed more 
profound. Of course the absence of 
moisture in their atmosphere and the 
thinner air of their planet removed one 
of the chief obstacles to astronomical 
observation as we know it on earth. The 
percentages of errors due to atmospheric 
refraction would be considerably less, 
too. 

As the announcer ceased Retallick 
pushed the red button again, an action 
that cut ofi sound and vision. Then 
he turned to us. 

“Well,” he said, as if some of the 
credit for what we had seen were due 
to him, “what do you think of it?” 

I could think of only one thing, of 
that revelation which had come so 
stunningly fo Us, and for all his show- 
man’s manner I fancy that that was what 
he actually meant. At any rate his face 
was graver than was its wont. 

“If the Martians aren’t making a 
horrible mistake,” I said, trying to keep 
my manner as light as possible, “it lodks 
as if our part of the solar system is in 
for a rather blue time.” 

“That’s putting it mildly,” Retallick 
returned. “In fact the only good part 
of it is that the Martians came to earth 
whMi they did. That, to me, looks 
rather like the hand of Providence.” 

CHAPTER XVI 

Getting Acquainted 

B ut when we came tO'<talk it over 
with Bo-Kar and the others, things 
did not seem so bad as they had 
appeared at first sight. The Adosians, 
as it was now more or less definitely 
established the crew of the sphere had 
been, as far as we cpuld see had made 
no preparations for launching a space 


Armada. We had encountered only the 
one machine, and at the most we could 
only say that we had deduced the ex- 
istence of another. The hope in our 
hearts was that th^ were still experi- 
menting. 

I had another hope, a private one that 
I did not care to breathe to a living 
soul, that any offensive that might be 
contemplated would not be directed im- 
mediately against the earth. The Mar- 
tians had more than once mentioned 
their wish to establish workings on the 
Moon, and the communicator broadcast 
had spoken of the likelihood of the 
Adosians using that dead world as a sort 
of half-way house in any operations 
against earth, and had gone on to fore- 
shadow the possibility of conflict aris- 
ing between the two races as the re- 
sult of their aspirations. Either race, 
established on the Moon, was a danger 
to the dreams of the other; both pos- 
sessed the secret of space-flying, which 
would put a yet keener edge on any 
rivalry that developed, and I imagined 
that the stronger would try to push the 
weaker to the wall before devoting time 
and attention to exfJoiting earth. I had 
no deliberate wish to see the Martians 
faced with the horrors of inter-spatial 
warfare, but if it came to a direct 
choice I would much prefer that they be 
the sufferers rather than ourselves. 

In the days that followed we were 
taken about a good deal, partly to show 
us the planet, and partly that we might 
be shown to the planet’s inhabitants. 
Most of our traveling was done on the 
open roads in the day-time, for, as the 
afternoon drew in and the sun began to 
slant, it grew far too cold for us to be 
abroad. The Martians themselves would 
remain out later than we dared, but they 
were all protected from the weather and 
insulated against the cold by suits sim- 
ilar to the space»suits we had worn on 
our visit to &e sphere. These, however, 


108 


AMAZING STORIES 


were heavy and cumbersome and any- 
way the authorities did not encourage 
wayfarers at night. 

I was rather surprised to find that 
the Martians had not developed any spe- 
cies of flying machine for use on their 
own planet. The internal combustion 
engine was unknown to them, and no ex- 
periments had ever been made on those 
lines, principally because they lacked oil 
supplies. With the diminution of the 
water supply they had discontinued 
the use of the steam engine, and 
even now that science had provided 
a means of keeping the water supply 
drawn from the polar areas more or less 
constant they had not reverted to it. 
Apparently they looked on steam power 
as not only wasteful in itself, but as 
merely a crude experiment on the road 
to better things. As it was now, prac- 
tically all the energy they required was 
drawn from the sun itself ; the glass- 
covered area, which amounted to nearly 
the whole of the planet, was one huge 
sun-trap. In some fashion never made 
plain to me they were able to store this 
energy and at very little cost transform 
it again into either light or power. 

The swift wheeled vehicles that trav- 
ersed the main roads of the planet were 
driven by batteries containing this stored 
energy and even allowing for the lighter 
pull of gravity on the surface of Mars, 
they reached speeds that seemed to us 
almost incredible. The machines, which 
were motor-cars on a larger and more 
sumptuous scale, were made of the same 
light yet strong and shimmering metal 
as was the shell of the space-flyer and 
they were capable of carrying tre- 
mendous loads of passengers and freight 
at relatively high speeds over enormous 
distances. 

T he glass-covered areas were sub- 
divided at regular intervals by roads 
or streets of about a chain (66 feet) in 


width, and were used merely for what 
I might call suburban communication. 
The main roads, the great arteries of the 
world traffic, were, however, enormous 
things. The smallest, I should say, was 
at least a mile in width, and the streams 
of traffic they carried from sunrise until 
late afternoon dwarfed anything I have 
ever seen anywhere. I have never taken 
the matter up with an astronomer of 
earth, but I should not be surprised if 
it was these roads, viewed through the 
telescopes, which had first given rise to 
the fable of the Martian canals. 

I have mentioned that Han, where we 
landed, was well within the Martian 
tropics, and in that equatorial belt was 
gathered all that was best and most pro- 
gressive on the red planet, and it was 
here that we saw most of interest. Our 
travels, however, were not confined to 
this particular zone; we were taken both 
north and south right to the rim of the 
polar ice-caps and saw all that the au- 
thorities judged it wise for us to see. 

On the rim of the polar caps, where 
great sun-ray stations had been erected, 
beams similar to that used on the space- 
ship were developed from great reflec- 
tors, and directed as required on the ice. 
The actual heat they generated could be 
graduated to a nicety, which was just as 
well. Otherwise the solid ice might 
have been turned incontinently into 
steam instead of being melted down 
gradually to water as the demand dic- 
tated. 

Something of the sort might one day 
be adapted for use in our own polar 
regions with happy results. Unless we 
develop some new form of energy on 
earth and find substitutes for metals 
that must, as time goes on, become in- 
creasingly rare, the Antarctic Continent 
with its vast stores of mineral wealth 
will have to be opened up. I can think 
of no S3rstem at present operative on 
earth by which this could be done in 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


109 


comfort and with minimum risk to life 
and limb. Perhaps while there is yet time 
we can learn from Mars the engineering 
secrets that they prefer at present to 
keep to themselves; an exchange of this 
sort may even be made the basis for 
an agreement over the concessions they 
desire on the Moon. 

In so highly developed a community 
I had expected to find some knowledge 
at least of atomic energ^^, but that seemed 
to be one branch of experimentation 
they had entirely neglected. I tackled 
Thrang about it on one occasion. I had 
considerable difficulty in making him 
understand what I was driving at, and it 
was not until I began what I’m afraid 
must have been rather a lame explana- 
tion of the atomic theory that he grasped 
what I meant. 

Then he told me rather a surprising 
thing. The theory of atomic energy was 
no new thing to them, he explained; 
they bad evrai succeeded something like 
a thousand years ago, I judged, in par- 
tially liberating that pxw&r, and “this,” 
he said, sweeping an arm about, “is the 
result” 

It was an indefinite gesture he made, 
that might wall have embraced the 
whole planet, and for the moment I was 
at a loss to understand. 

“What is?” I aaked bluntly. 

“^T^HE present condition of our plan- 

A et,” he said sadly. “It was a 
force that even when partially released 
had the power to blast and wither. It 
turned the greater part of the planet 
from a garden to a desert. The inventor 
himself was killed very early, and his 
work-shop became a spouting inferno of 
flame that threatened to spread across 
the entire surface of the planet. We did 
manage to isolate it to a great extent, 
by building walls of a non<onducting 
substance around it, but we dare not 
roof it over. For one thing we were 


afraid that the pent-up energy would 
burst its way out and make things even 
worse than they were. The walls we 
had constructed, you see, remained non- 
conducting only so long as the energy 
was able to escape upwards. Yet that 
very energy spouting skywards behaved 
like the material shot from a volcano, 
and spread and spread until it looked 
at last as if there would be no habitable 
spot left on the whole round of our 
planet,” 

“But you must have got rid of it at 
last,” I said. “How did you manage 
that?” 

“Desperate ills require desperate reme- 
dies,” Thrang told me. “We only got 
rid of it by sacrificing a portion of our 
planet itself. Volunteers were especially 
called, and starting from a good distance 
away they began to mine towards the 
center of the disturbance. When their 
instruments told them they were di- 
rectly under it they placed enormous 
charges of powerful explosives there, 
exfdosfves specially designed to have an 
upward thrust, closed the tremendous 
cavern they had made, and retreated, 
sealing the passage behind them as they 
went. It all had to be calculated out to a 
nicety, and the explosives set to go off 
by time machines, as for reasons I need 
not go into, we dare not explode them 
by electricity from a distance. Rough- 
ly we could not have anyffiing between 
the mine and the mine-head that would 
act as any sort of a conductor. The cav- 
ern itself had to be. insulated on all 
sides save the top and the mine-sap 
(weathered rock) was packed with non- 
conducting material. 

“ AT the exact moment calculated the 
^ explosion took place. The whole 
of the affected area, nearly a square 
mile in extent, was blown clean out of 
the planet into space. But even in rid- 
ding ourselves of this menace we nearly 


110 


AMAZING STORIES 


brought about another catastrophe. The 
area precipitated into space, which had 
become in eflfect a stellar missile, passed 
close to our inner satellite, which you 
call Phobos. Some back-draught, some 
manifestation of the atomic energy, so 
speeded up this little moon of ours that 
now it performs three revolutions for 
every one its mother planet makes.* 

“And since then?” I asked, inter- 
estedly. 

“Since then,” Thrang went on, “we 
have allowed no experiments to be made 
with the atom. Some later experiment 
might succeed too well, and finish what 
the first began.” 

“But the . . . the, let us call it a 
stellar missile,” I said. “What became 
of it?” 

Thrang made a vague gesture. “It 
passed,” he said simply. “Somewhere 
out in the ends of space no doubt it 
ceased to be. Though, perhaps,” he 
went on thoughtfully, “for all we know 
it may still be flaming away light years 
beyond us.** At least we soon lost 
sight of it, and its ultimate fate held no 
interest for us.” 

CHAPTER XVII 

The Great Decision 

T ime passed. The months dragged 
slowly by, until at length nearly a 
year had elapsed since our depar- 
ture from earth. 

We were treated well. Within lim- 
its we were given everything we asked 
for, but definite information on the 
one thing we most wished to know — the 

* Mars makes a complete revolution on its axis once 
in about twenty-four hours. Detmos, the outer satellite, 
takes thirty hours eighteen ipinutes to make a complete 
revolution around Mara, while Fhobosi the inner satd- 
lite, revcrfves round the planet once in seven hours, 
thirty-nine minutes, that is it performs about three 
revojutioiis every MartAc day. Compare the tirne^ 
twenty-eight days — taken by the moon to revolve round 
the earth. 

** Light year, a convenient measure for astronomical 
distances. Light travds 186,000 miles a second. A 
light year is the distance light will travel in a /car. 


possibility of our being returned to our 
own planet — was denied us. It was not 
for want of asking. But every time 
any of us sought to know, we were told, 
though not unkindly, that the matter had 
not yet been decided, and that we must 
wait in patience. Even Retallick could 
learn nothing. Norna either did not 
know or would not tell him — which, he 
was not sure of. 

The matter of the Adosians had not 
been raised again, and I was beginning 
to wonder if after the first scare the 
Martians had decided that there was 
nothing in it. I did discover, however, 
that Ados itself was being kept under 
close observation, and that at certain in- 
tervals roughly about once a month — 
when it was the nearest, and earth the 
furthest away of tjie three bodies — con- 
ditions for observation became favor- 
able. But when one recollects that these 
observations had to be conducted over an 
average distance of sixty million miles of 
space it is not to be wondered at, that 
nothing of a very conclusive nature 
emerged immediately from them. 

Ados it seemed had. no apparent at- 
mosphere, but even that was not con- 
clusive. It might be so tenuous as not to 
be readily discernable, and from its po- 
sition in the heavens, when it occulted 
a star it was Impossible to determine 
whether the gradual disappearance of the 
latter was or was not due to the re- 
fraction of the earth’s atmosphere. It 
may seem a matter of little moment, once 
we had decided Ados was inhabited, 
whether it possessed an atmosphere or 
not, but actually a good deal hung on 
our solution of the problem. 

Terrestrial science had established that 
life cannot exist without air, and to a 
great extent this is true. Lung-breath- 
ing animals must have air; plants re- 
quire it for their existence, and even 
fish life must of necessity take it from 
the water in which it lives. The great 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


111 


lung capacity of the Adosian bodies, 
which the Martian anatomists had ex- 
amined, showed that they were used to 
breathing a thinner atmosphere than oven 
that of Mars, but what it did not show 
was whether such atmosphere as there 
was, was surface or subterranean, nat- 
ural or artificial. In other words the Ad- 
osians might have reached the stage of 
development where they could produce 
air synthetically. Or again as their at- 
mosjrfiere departed from the surface they 
might have begun burrowing into the in- 
terior of their world, and with the help 
of their natural science have staved off 
the disaster threatened by the desertion 
of the air. We did not know the ex- 
tent of their powers. 

If they existed and sustained life on 
a natural surface atmosphere, however 
tenuous it might be, the odds were proba- 
bly slightly in the favor of the Mar- 
tians if hostilities broke out, but in the 
event of either of the other supposi- 
tions proving correct it foreshadow’ed a 
scientific grasp of the natural forces 
that might wdll make them very formid- 
able enemies indeed. But, as one of the 
Martian astronomers put it, why should 
we take it for granted that because two 
out of all die stellar bodies were par- 
ticularly adapted for the existence of 
air-breathing mammals, that such should 
be the case right through the length and 
breadth of the universe? It might even 
be that we were in a minority and such 
life as existed in other solar systems 
managed to get on very nicely without 
air as we knew it. 

O UITE a revolutionary theory, it 
seemed to me, but then all theories 
that run counter to one’s experience 
seem revolutionary the first time one 
hears them. 

Then one day when we had almost be- 
come reagned to a continued existence 
on Mars a communicator message came 


through to the effect that Bo-Kar would 
call on us at the midday hour that day 
and that we were to hold ourselves in 
readiness to accompany him to an audi- 
ence. 

The bald annotmeement threw us into 
a flutter, the more so as we hadn’t the 
faintest idea what lay behind it. We 
all felt that it was too much to hope 
that a move was going to be made at 
last to transport us back to earth, yet 
we could not see what else it could be. 

Retallick had been out most of the 
morning, and he came in, about half an 
hour before Bo-Kar was timed to arrive, 
looking rather glum and down in the 
mouth, I thought. 

I gave him the message. “Oh, Bo- 
Kar,’’ he said sourly, “damn him !’’ 

"A nice way to talk about your pros- 
pective father-in-law, isn’t it?’’ I hinted. 

“Father-in-law be . . . ,’’ He choked 
on the end of the sentence, and his face 
flushed. 

I waited. I felt I would get all I 
wanted to know much quicker if I let 
him have his head, than if I tried to 
force it out of him. After a pause he 
glanced up and met my enquiring eye. 

“Sorry, Harper, it’s not your fault, 
but you caught me on the raw. You see. 
I’ve just left Norna. For the ump- 
teenth time I’ve been pressing her to 
marry me. So far she’s always managed 
to evade giving me a direct answer, had 
one sort or another of excuse that I al- 
ways felt wasn’t the real one, but to-day, 
I put it straight to her. Finally I got 
her to admit that it wasn’t her fault, 
that she was willing to marry me to- 
morrow—- to-day, if I pressed the matter 
—according to the rites of either of our 
races. The 'snag in the way, however, 
was her father, Bo-Kar, himself. She 
could not marry without his consent, and 
so far she hadn’t been able to get him 
to give it. 


112 


AMAZING STORIES 


“ ‘Why not,’ I suggested, ‘do without 
it?’ 

“It was the only time I’d ever seen 
her shocked. Then she explained. It 
wasn’t done on Mars. One respected 
one’s elders. One might not agree with 
them, but one didn’t deliberately dis- 
obey them. Seems it’s the sort of prim- 
itive ancestor worship one wouldn’t 
expect to find on an advanced planet like 
this. However, I didn’t say that as I 
didn’t want to make bad worse. I con- 
tented myself by asking her what Bo- 
Kar had against me. 

“Nothing,” she told me, “except that I 
was an Earthman, not a Rocan. Bo-Kar 
seemingly regards me as some^^sort of an 
inferior animal.” 

“I wouldn’t say that, Retallick,” I told 
him. “It’s probably not true, anyway. 
Put yourself in his place. Suppose you 
had a daughter and some being from 
a strange planet, a man of an alien race, 
whose ways and thoughts and everything 
that counted in life were utterly different 
from yours, asked her hand, wouldn’t 
you hesitate, even if you didn’t feel in 
your own mind doubt as to the outcome ?” 

“I suppose I would,” he admitted 
grudgingly. “But I know that our case 
is different.” 

“All cases are,” I said sententiously. 
“But, you see, the trouble is that Bo- 
Kar can’t project himself into your 
mind. He’s looking at possibilities 
through his own eyes, not yours.” 

“You’re a Job’s comforter, aren’t you. 
Harper?” Retallick said in rather a net- 
tled tone. “Well, it’s not all over yet, 
not by a long way. I mean to have it 
out with the old man himself.” 

I nodded. “Probably the best thing 
you can do. I wish you luck. But — don’t 
try to bounce him.” 

He looked at me sideways, rather like 
a startled horse. I was not at all sure 
but that that had been his original in- 
tention. 


“You can be sure I’ll do what I think 
best,” he said stiffly, and let the matter 
drop. 

Bo-Kar was announced shortly after- 
wards. He seemed in considerable ex- 
citement, that is, for him, and that gave 
me the idea that something of import- 
ance, about which we had as yet heard 
nothing, must have happened quite re- 
cently. 

He got to the point straightaway. He 
had orders to take us direct to the 
Council ; we were to appear before the 
Three and answer such questions as they 
thought fit to ask us. 

“The Three?” I exclaimed. I have 
not mentioned them before in this nar- 
rative, just as I have omitted all refer- 
ence to the Martian system of govern- 
ment, simply because it had been of no 
immediate concern until this moment. 

R oughly, the passage of the cen- 
turies had knitted the various Mar- 
tian races into a compact nation. They 
had experimented with various forms of 
government, tried kings, discarded them; 
achieved something on the republican 
model and found it wouldn’t work, and 
at length came to the conclusion that a 
benevolent despotism was about the most 
satisfactory form they could find. Pos- 
sibly it would have been such, except 
that one cannot always rely on despots 
to be benevolent all the time. I should 
imagine from what I’ve been told that 
it became one of the dangerous Martian 
trades, principally because an outraged 
population has a nasty habit of getting 
out of hand at inconvenient times. The 
result was that soon there were no offers 
for the job, and it seemed as though a 
state of chaos would ensue. This, on 
dates, I should fancy would have been 
about the time those experiments with 
atomic energy were beginning to take 
form, and it was probably the result of 
that last one that brought the planet 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


113 


under the form of control which still 
exists to-day. 

The original scheme was the organiza- 
tion of a board of control, made up of 
three scientists, but, after the atomic dis- 
aster, scientists lost a little of their pop- 
ularity. They were still regarded as 
pretty useful citizens, but it was felt that 
their impetuosity should be curbed a 
trifle. So it came about that the Board of 
Control, later to be known as the Coun- 
cil, contained one scientist only. The 
second member was almost always drawn 
from the professional or trading classes 
in order to give some ballast to the 
Board, and the third was usucilly a writer 
of some sort, a novelist or romancer, by 
preference. No doubt the originators 
of the idea fancied that a man of this 
type would be more or less impartial and 
used to conceiving operations on a grand 
scale, also he would supply the necessary 
imaginative drive to make the Council 
a force to be reckoned with. Absurd as 
it looked at the start, the scheme had 
worked well for several centuries, and, 
the Martians, who should be the best 
judges of its value, had no desire to ex- 
periment in other directions. 

It was to this particular body, none 
of whom we had yet met face to face, 
that Bo-Kar was taking us, with what 
object we had not yet elicited. I would 
have asked him point-blank,, but before 
I could frame the words of my question 
Retallick cut in ahead of me. 

I N the simplest manner possible he had 
managed to cut Bo-Kar out from the 
herd, and the moment he claimed his at- 
tention he broached the matter that was 
uppermost in his mind. It was not the 
sort of thing I could have done with 
others looking on and able to hear a good 
deal of what was said. But Retallick 
was an opportunist; most probably he 
felt he might not get another chance of 
cornering Bo-Kar, and so he reached 


out and seized the chance while he could. 

The women-folk had already left the 
room to put the finishing touches to 
their preparations before setting out with 
us, and we four were left alone. Had I 
guessed at the start what was transpir- 
ing I would have edged out also and 
taken Spain with me, but Retallick began 
by talking in a voice that did not carry 
to us ; it was only as he got excited that 
his tone grew louder, and by the time 
we realized what it was all about, it was 
too late to slip away. 

As I say we heard nothing of the 
start, and for the rest only about half 
of what Retallick said, for every now 
and again he recollected himself and 
dropped his voice, but as he gave us 
the whole affair in detail later on it may 
as well go in here in its proper place. 

He began by asking Bo-Kar point- 
blank why he objected to Norna mar- 
rying him. Bo-Kar told him, with 
equal bluntness, that it was because he 
belonged to another planet. 

Retallick followed that up by enquir- 
ing was that all Bo-Kar had against him. 
The Martian hesitated — probably he was 
comparing in his mind the states of de- 
velopment the two planets had reached, 
with results not altogether flattering to 
Retallick — but he made the fatal mistake 
of allowing his natural sense of courtesy 
to over-ride his regard for exactitude. 
He agreed that that was all he had 
against Retallick, and added that the 
Earth-man should have known better 
than to have fallen in love with Norna, 
when he realized the gulf, material and 
otherwise, that separated the two worlds. 
Retallick retorted that this wasn’t due 
to any fault of his ; whatever blame there 
might be, rested solely on Bo-Kar him- 
self. 

At this point I fancy the Martian 
must have realized without quite under- 
standing what it implied that he was 
floundering in deep waters. You see, the 


114 


AMAZING STORIES 


Martian civilization had developed more 
or less on strictly utilitarian and scientific 
lines ; they treated the people as a homo- 
geneous body, rather .than as a collec- 
tion of individuals of varying tempera- 
ments and characteristics. Probably this 
system worked quite well on Mars, and 
indeed the average Martian citizen had 
altogether lost touch with differing 
psychological possibilities as we know 
them on earth. He could not compre- 
hend the individual save as a cog 
in the machine. No doubt Bo-Kar 
had begun with the idea that Retal- 
lick would realize, as a sensible man, 
that what was best for the majority was 
best for the individual. He reckoned 
without that particularly human kink 
which makes an Earth-man, who is in 
love, think the world well lost if he 
gains the girl of his choice. I know I’ve 
put it rather badly, but presently, no 
doubt, you will begin to see what I mean. 

Bo-Kar seemed taken aback at the 
suggestion that any blame there was, 
was attributable solely to himself. It 
was something he coidd not understand 
and naturally he immediately sought en- 
lightenment. 

“Well,” said Retallick, “we didn’t ask 
to come with you. Not to put too fine 
a point on it you kidnapped us.” 

“I felt I was bringing you a better and 
more advanced civilization," Bo-Kar an- 
swered, puzzled. 

Retallick chuckled. He began to feel 
the dry land under his feet, and he was 
quick to see that Bo-Kar was getting out 
of his depth. 

“T’M not denying your good inten- 
tions,” Retallick returned. “I know 
you and your people well enough now 
to realize that you wouldn’t go out of 
your way to do harm to innocent and in- 
offensive folk. Nevertheless the fact 
remains that you took us away from 
everything we were used to, put us down 


in a strairge world to which we haven’t 
properly adjusted ourselves even yet, and 
then ask us why we feel hardly done 
by. The others are in a worse state than 
I. They’ve discovered no compensatory 
advantages, while I have. Yet you want 
to take away from me the only thing 
that will make life here worth while and 
console me for the world I have left 
behind me. Even if you sent me back 
to earth now, things would never be 
the same for either of us. Norna could 
never think the same of anyone as she 
does of me, and the same applies to my 
feelings for her. If you want it in a 
nut-shell, you’ve lit a fire in two worlds 
that nothing can ever put out.” 

Bo-Kar looked thoughtful at that. 
Whether he believed everything Retallick 
said or not, of course I can’t say, but 
I fancy the young man’s earnestness 
must have had considerable weight with 
him. 

“You’ve put the situation in quite a 
new light,” he said frankly. “Yet there 
is no precedent for what you suggest.” 

“Of course there isn’t,” Retallick 
agreed. “This is the first time anything 
of the sort has happened, but it’s almost 
certain not to be the last. You have 
the interests of your planet at heart; you 
are reaching out to our Moon, earth’s 
territory, and sooner or later you must 
come into peaceful conflict with our folk. 
How are you going to get on, how even 
achieve toleration if you take up the at- 
titude that you are a race apart, not to 
be sullied by marriage with an Earth- 
man ? Put it the other way about. Sup- 
pose in the future some of your men 
should wish to marry Earth-women. 
Are we in our turn to take the attitude 
that our two races must never mix?” 

It was a bold speech, this of Retal- 
lick’s; that is, if he said all he claims 
he did. As I have already emphasized, 
I could hear but a word here and there. 
But it had an effect on Bo-Kar. Be- 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


115 


neath his outer austerity he was a kindly 
man, and I fancy that a good deal of 
what Retallick said opened his eyes to 
our possible real feelings as regards our 
transportation. Perhaps that swayed him; 
perhaps, too, he felt that anything that 
antagonized us now would militate later 
on against a peaceful settlement of those 
problematical mining rights on the moon. 
Retallick, with his forceful ways and his 
ready intelligence, must have loomed a 
larger figure in Bo-Kar’s conception of 
our world’s economy than he really was. 
I do not say he deliberately deceived the 
Martian, but I am inclined to believe that 
he allowed him to think that the part we 
might play in swaying the councils of 
our own globe was no mean one. 

“What you have said,” Bo-Kar re- 
marked after a fateful pause, “puts a 
new complexion on the situation. It may 
well be that in the interests of Roca this 
matter should go forward to the end 
you desire. But I make no promises in 
that regard. The decision is one as 
much for the Council as for myself.” 

And there he left it. Retallick, like 
a wise man, made no effort to follow 
up the advantage he had gained. Better 
results would be obtained by allowing the 
seed he had sown to germinate in Bo- 
Kar’s mind. Not that there was much 
doubt of that. It would have been obvi- 
ous to a duller man than Retallick that 
Bo-Kar had already made his great de- 
cision' — one that broke through the age- 
long traditions of his planet — but pre- 
ferred, naturally enough under the 
circumstances, that the sanction for it 
should come from the Council rather 
than from his own lips. 

A few moments more and Marian and 
Arabdla rejoined us. We were ready 
to face the Council and learn from them 
the reason that prompted them, after 
nearly a year of inactivity, to summon 
us to their presence, 


CHAPTER XVIII 
The Expedition 

T he distance to the Council build- 
ing was but short. We walked it, 
Bo-Kar and his attendants lead- 
ing the way. Retallick seized the oppor- 
tunity to drop behind a little and give 
me some idea of what had transpired 
between him and the Martian. He 
thought, he said, that it was just as 
well for us to know all about it, as he 
had a feeling it might have some bearing 
on the events of the day. At least it 
would not hurt us to know how mat- 
ters stood. 

I had never seen the Councillors in the 
flesh, but their faces were familiar to us, 
for several times we had heard and seen 
them over the communicator. They met 
us in a small, bare room, one that would 
at a pinch hold twenty-five or thirty peo- 
ple, and they bade us to be seated. I 
ran my eyes over their faces, striving 
to read there something of what their 
thoughts might be. 

Garno, the scientist member, was the 
youngest of the trio, a little lighter in 
color than his fellows — a grave, silent 
personage who, however, could talk to 
the point when the need arouse. The pro- 
fessional representative, Shagun, was old 
in point of years, though he had a singu- 
lar freshness of expression ; but it 
was towards Nonda, the third of the 
three, my eyes most often strayed. He 
did not strike me as a man of letters. 
I would have been hard put to it to 
label him. There was an evasive, or, 
more correctly, an effervescent quality in 
him that defied description. But summed 
up, what impressed me most about the 
three was their balance, the unison of 
their thoughts, and the aptitude with 
which they grasped a view-point alien to 
them. 

Besides the three there were present 


116 


AMAZING STORIES 


five or six others, some of whom I was 
able to recognize, others of whom were 
strangers to me. But the thing that 
struck me most about the gathering was 
that everybody there, with the exception 
of ourselves, was an expert of one va- 
riety or another. 

Shagun, as the senior member of the 
Council, opened proceedings without pre- 
liminary the moment the formal intro- 
ductions were over, and came to the 
point at once. 

Their astronomers, he told us, bad 
been keeping Ados under close and con- 
stant observation ever since our landing, 
and for the greater part of that period 
had seen little or nothing of interest. 
Within the last month or so, however, 
certain indications of activity had ap- 
peared on that world’s surface. 

Before he outlined what those evi- 
dences were, he explained to us that 
Ados went through phases similar to 
those of the Moon, so that it was only 
during those parts of the month when 
it appeared full from Mars that the ob- 
servations were of the highest value. 
In recent weeks the silver surface had 
been broken up, or rather spotted in 
places, by odd manifestations of light. 
At times these were green and at others 
red, and there seemed to be some sig- 
nificance in the fact that the two colors 
on no occasion showed at the same time. 

The Martian telescopes, even with 
their greater magnification, had failed 
to reveal the cause of these spots. Con- 
tinued observation showed that the red 
ones disappeared after a few days, while 
the green ones began to spread and pres- 
ently merged into each other, so that the 
ultimate effect was as though the whole 
surface of Ados was covered by a green- 
ish haze. 

In addition, sensitive instruments of 
the type used to detect the cosmic (Mil- 
liken) rays had evinced curiously dis- 
turbing features. They appeared to be 


recording the play of magnetic forces 
that it seemed could only radiate from 
Ados. In the circumstances there was 
ample justification for the belief that the 
inhabitants of Ados were preparing some 
inter-stellar armada on a huge scale, and 
spectroscope and thermocouple tests — the 
latter an instrument for detecting the 
heat of planetary bodies — seemed to in- 
dicate that the green haze was some kind 
of a vibratory screen, whether offensive 
or defensive had not definitely been de- 
termined. 

But with all this evidence of presum- 
ably inimical activity going on. Mars 
could not sit idly by. Its future as well 
as earth’s was bound up in the outcome. 
The offensive must be taken before it 
was too late, and to that end the fleet 
of space ships, that had been secretly 
building ever since Bo-Kar’s experiment 
had proved successful, would be placed 
in commission. It seemed that a closer 
investigation of the queer behavior of 
Ados was demanded; whether a conflict 
would arise from that, remained to be 
seen, though the people of Roca would 
endeavor not to provoke trouble idly. 

Shagun moved a little in his seat, 
coughed and eyed us. “I have made the 
position clear, I trust,” he said. 

N O one spoke. All eyes turned to 
me. Spain nudged me. “You’d 
better do the talking, Billy,” he said. 

I felt myself turning red. “I gather, 
sir,” I said haltingly, “that the inhabi- 
tants of Ados are preparing some sort 
of surprise that might well involve all 
the solar system.” 

“That admirably sums up the situa- 
tion,” Shagun agreed. “Your peoples of 
earth are more vitally interested in the 
matter than we because of their nearness 
to Ados and the possible desirability of 
their planet from the Adosians’ point of 
view. On the other hand, as far as our 
own researches can be relied on, we seem 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


117 


to be the onty planet in the solar system 
sufficiently advanced to resist the invad- 
ers; by reason of our position in the 
scale of development, we must sooner or 
later clash with them, and it were better 
that this should happen before rather 
than after they have consolidated their 
position. 

“Our attitude is not dictated solely by 
altruism towards the earth peoples, but 
still more by a consideration of our own 
position. Nevertheless we would have 
no hesitation in helping our sister planet, 
even had we nothing to gain. But as 
we have something to gain we would 
wish to drive a bargain as the price of 
our aid. It is that we might place the 
position before you that we have called 
you here to-day.” 

He paused and again looked at us as 
though expecting me to reply. Seeing 
there was nothing else for it, I said, “In 
what way can we — ^those of us here, I 
mean — help you?” 

Again Shagun. “Bo-Kar tells me that 
you are already aware of our aspirations 
concerning your moon. There is no need 
to enlarge on that, save the concessions 
we wish to be a portion of the bargain. 
But tell us in how far your people can 
aid us in a campaign against the Ados- 
ians.” 

He had me stumped there. The plain 
truth was unpalatable, but with those 
three pairs of keen dark eyes boring into 
me, seemingly reading my very thoughts, 
I felt I could do no less than tell it. 

“I think the greatest problem will be 
to convince them, first, that there is such 
a body as Ados ; and, secondly, that they 
can possibly be in any danger from its 
inhabitants. As for their ability to aid 
you in any way I cannot speak of that; 
I am no scientist, and I do not know 
what discoveries jealous and suspicious 
nations may be hiding from each other.” 
I ended breathlessly, as the enormity of 
what I was saying dawned on me. 


S HAGUN looked rather surprised. I 
think he had expected a whole- 
hearted agreement with his suggestions — 
an offer, perhaps, made by us on behalf 
of our world. No doubt, too, he was a 
little bewildered at a state of affairs so 
different from that on his own planet. 

Bo-Kar took a step forward. “May 
I speak?” he asked, and when assent had 
been given he went on: “The peoples 
of earth are not one but many nations. 
They differ in language, in customs and 
in color. Each nation fears and distrusts 
its neighbors, and international jealousies 
are fed and fanned by certain men for 
their own ends. Or at least that is my 
interpretation of information that has 
come to me.” 

From Retallick, via Norna, I assumed. 
As a matter of fact I was right, as I 
discovered later. 

“Our friends, I believe,” he continued, 
“cannot claim to speak for any but their 
own people, but as these are the most 
enlightened in their world, the most 
powerful, and the ones spread most 
widely over the globe, two great nations 
speaking the same tongue, though one 
is ruled by a king and the other is a re- 
public, such as we once had here, it 
might well be that what we desire will 
be forthcoming. Nevertheless, since they 
are proud peoples, these two great na- 
tions, quick to resent injuries or injustice 
done to their citizens, it is not at all un- 
likely that they may say that in the first 
place we had no right to remove Earth- 
men at all from their planet'.” 

I could see the hand of Retallick in 
this. I imagine even that Bo-Kar was 
repeating some of his own views on the 
world in general. 

“Is that so?” Shagun asked me. 

I thought I had better say “Yes,” and 
I did. 

“If you” — ^he addressed us all in gen- 
eral — “were returned safely to your 
planet and the inconvenience you have 


118 


AMAZING STORIES 


undergone made up to you, would you 
be prepared to use your influence on our 
behalf amongst your people?” 

I was on the point of agreeing to this, 
when Retallick caught my arm. “Leave 
me out of this,” he whispered almost 
fiercely. “Here’s my chance if you do.” 

“Yes,” I said boldly to Shagun. “All 
of us, save one.” 

Ba-Kar gave a start. I think he sensed 
what was coming now. 

“And that one?” said Shagun in his 
calm, even voice. 

Without a moment’s hesitation Retal- 
lick stepped forward. “I am that one,” 
he said, “and I beg of you to hear what 
it is I have to say.” 

“Speak on then,” Shagun said. 

“TVyl'Y friends are agreeable to your 
proposal,” Retallick said, sweep- 
ing us with a glance. “I, too, am agree- 
able to it, save that I wish something 
for myself. What my gift is I think 
most of you know or guess already, but 
I would like the opportunity of pointing 
out now how the granting of my wish 
will aid rather than hinder the project 
you have in view. I beg of you there- 
fore to hear me to the end. 

“I wish to marry Noma, daughter of 
Bo-Kar; she wishes to marry me, but 
will not run counter to the custom of 
her world. I say that there is no such 
custom; there cannot be any such, for 
I am the first Outlander to ask for the 
hand of a Rocan girl. Alien from you 
in thought, word, habit and deed I no 
doubt am, but we are made in the same 
image and likeness. Our peoples are 
slow to be convinced but quick to sus- 
pect. None the less if I were to come 
to earth the husband of a daughter of 
Roca, and say, “She is of the people who 
ask this of you. She has come to me 
from her planet across the void, and by 
that act our two worlds are made one.’ 
Do you not) think then that our people 


would see that your aims are of the 
highest, your intentions peaceful, your 
wishes that earth and Roca may live 
side by side in peace and friendship, each 
helping to increase the other’s store of 
knowledge ?” 

In a way he was not far wrong. 
Given the right impetus and the right 
amount of publicity, such a planetary love 
tale might well seize the imagination of 
a world and sweep it from end to end. 
Even the heard-headed Martians were 
moved, no doubt because they looked on 
us as greater sentimentalists than we 
really were, and so saw bigger possi- 
bilities ahead. 

“It is a big thing you ask,” said Sha- 
gun cautiously, though something told me 
the scales had already swung in Retal- 
lick’s favor. 

“It is a big thing I ask from Noma, 
daughter of Bo-Kar, that I grant you,” 
Retallick answered. “But from you, no. 
I merely ask you that you kill a ‘custom’ 
not yet born, that you lay aside a preju- 
dice before it has time to form, and show 
that in your hearts as in your minds you 
are truly great.” 

An earthly audience would have 
cheered. These Martians merely inclined 
their heads. Yet Retallick’s words had 
got home; that I knew now without a 
doubt. 

“But,” Shagun spoke up, “there is yet 
Bo-Kar to hear on the matter.” 

“I have little to say,” Bo-Kar told 
him. “Almost I am persuaded to con- 
sent now, but I think it only wise that 
Norna should speak for herself.” 

“There is no need for that,” said 
Retallick. “I have her full consent and 
permission for this that I am saying.” 

“Nevertheless,” said Shagun in mild 
reproof, “it were well that the formal 
declaration be made in the proper time 
and place, which is not here. Tlie maid 
must speak for herself in this matter, 
as” — ^his lip curled wryly — “it has been 


TERROR OUT OF SPACE 


119 


known before that maids can change 
their minds. But, subject to that, we 
have reached agreement?” 

Retallick nodded. “As far as I am 
concerned, yes,” he said. “My friends 
have already spoken. I do not think 
they will go back on their words.” 

“We will not,” I declared, “though I 
wish it to be clearly understood that we 
speak for ourselves alone. We cannot 
claim to speak for others. We cannot 
claim to sway the councils of otir gov- 
ernments. We can but put the position 
before them. And in that regard I would 
like to say a word or two more. Sad to 
say, the peoples of our planets are no- 
toriously skeptical — with a few excep- 
tions — of the existence of life other than 
that on their own globe. That it should 
be superior to them in many ways and 
certainly inimical, they may find it hard 
to believe.” 

“They will see our ships and our 
people,” Shagun interrupted. “Is not 
that enough ?” 

N ot quite,” I said. "But if I tell 
you what is in my mind you may 
see how that can be overcome. I sug- 
gest that pictures be prepared, anything 
in fact that will carry conviction of the 
standard of civilization on this planet, 
that records of your observations be also 


prepared, and that on our way we pass 
as close to Ados as is consistent with 
safety and photograph that body also. In 
addition, gruesome though it may seem, 
if the preserved body of one of the 
Adosians be brought back with us for 
our anatomists to examine, it would, I 
think, provide the final convincing evi- 
dence of the truth of what we say.” 

Shagun inclined his head. “That shall 
be done,” he said. “We ask no one 
to believe what may seem to them well 
nigh incredible things, without ample 
proof of their truth being provided. The 
fleet is being fitted out. In little less 
than a week it will be ready to cross 
the void. In the meantime may the 
Architect of the Universe watch over 
you.” 

It was so patently a dismissal that we 
turned about. Bo-Kar signed to us to 
follow him, and led us from the room. 

“You are free to go your way in the 
meantime,” he said. “I must return, 
however, for there are other matters con- 
cerning me still left undiscussed.” 

He left us* We earth people turned 
to each other with joy in our hearts, 
for in our several ways we had at last 
achieved our desires or saw ourselves 
within measurable distance of their real- 
ization. There was none to tell us that 
our troubles were only now beginning. 


End of Part II 


120 


The <J)Tan ITho 

Stopped the Earth 

By HENRY J. KOSTKOS 

This story, by one of the recent acquisitions to what we may call our staff of 
authors, is very short, but will be enjoyed greatly by our readers. There is 
much art in the production of a very short story to make it a true narration 
and bring it to a crisp ending. Our author has certainly succeeded in 
keeping up what used to be called the unities and brings about a good climax. 


S OLEMNLY the three grey 
bearded old men filed through 
the door into the dim interior 
of the laboratory. The grim 
lines on their faces did not re- 
lax as they gathered around the amazing 
combination of coils, wires, motors, 
tanks and tubes that filled the large 
room in studied disorder. The bluish 
glow from a mercury vapor lamp il- 
luminated the meter dials on the dull 
black switchboard and cast a weird tint 
over the wrinkled faces of the three 
scientists. A musty odor, that might 
have come from a newly opened tomb, 
hung like a blanket of death over the 
scene. 

As his stooped frame bent low over 
the galvanometer of the electron gUn 
Markrum said: 

“There is much danger, Rizzurt, in 
performing the Great Experiment.” 

The man he addressed pushed this 
long hawk-like features close to Mark- 
rum’s face. His eyes were alive with 
a thousand pin points of fire and his 
sallow skin reddened into an angry 
flush. 

“Did I not tell you that not a single 
inhabitant of the earth will be harmed? 
Must I repeat the test over and over 
again to convince you? Wirrtel has no 
childish doubts, why should you have 
any?” 


Wirrtel looked sidelong at Markrum, 
his white beard sVireeping across his 
chest. 

“Rizzurt is right. I have no doubts. 
But to convince yourself, make your own 
tests.” 

Markrum dropped his head in resig- 
nation. With a heavy heart he started 
the small high tension generators which 
lit up the tubes of the atom isolagraph. 
There was a silvery tinkle of broken 
glass as his nervous old hand knocked 
over a small flask, then taking a grip 
on himself he dexterously made a series 
of adjustments. 

Then he straightened up and shuffled 
towards the control board, the nails in 
his shoes scraping audibly over the 
titles of the laboratory floor. Rapidly he 
threw a switch in and out and swiftly 
read the oscillating needle on the galvan- 
ometer dial. Each reading he entered 
in a scrawly hand on a pad of paper, 
while his two colleagues watched with 
glaring impatience. 

Finally Markrum was satisfied. He 
sat down at a bench, and lost himself 
in intricate calculations. The two waited 
but said nothing. Then Markrum 
glanced up; his voice was harshly dis- 
cordant : 

“I have repeated your experiment, 
Rizzurt. Much of your wave atomic 
theory I am in perfect agreement with. 


THE MAN WHO STOPPED THE EARTH 


121 


But there is a serious error in your 
atom equation. The complex quantity 
psi that you interpret as . . . 

“Enough of your insults, Markrum. 
How dare you make me out as an in- 
competent dabbler? I am the great 
scientist Kirkland Rizzurt ; take care how 
you speak to me,” he bellowed, his beard 
bristling as he thrust his chin pugna- 
ciously towards the other. Then with 
a toss of his head he added defiantly. 
“The Great Experiment will take place 
£tt once! I have locked the door; you 
can not get out.” 

Rizzurt stood upright under the mer- 
cury vapor lamp, his face sinister with 
a fanatic light. Then like one pronovmc- 
ing a sentence of doom he shouted above 
the banging of the shutter as the night 
wind outside whistled under the eaves 
of the frame building. A flash of 
lightning foretold the coming of a storm 
and distant thunder rumbled menacingly 
above the tearing of the wind. 

“There must be no further delay. The 
time for the Great Experiment has 
come. I WILL NOW STOP THE 
EARTH I” 

M ARKRUM’S rheumatic old frame 
shivered as if he were cold. Wirr- 
tel tightened his grasp on the edge of 
the laboratory table; beyond this he 
showed no emotion. But Rizzurt had 
been transformed into a creature of eyes, 
great fiery red, flaming, fanatic orbs; 
they became quizzical, inquiring, more 
rational, then pleading, as the man low- 
ered himself heavily to a stool, more 
like a tired old man, weary of the world, 
burned out, unhappy. . . . 

“Ah, Markrum, Markrum, if you 
would only understand. Here in our 
hands we have the means of doing a 
wonderful thing. Our earth moves in 
a complex path; it rotates, travels in 
its orbit around the sun, the sun carries 
us through the galactic system, the galac- 


tic system speeds us amid the spiral 
nebulae. . . . How fast are we going, 
what is our destination, what is gravity, 
can we exist outside of the orbit of 
the sun? These questions — think, man, 
just think — these problems, these un- 
knowns, we can now answer.” 

By this time the storm outside raged 
with fury. The laboratory was lit up 
brilliantly by flashes of lightning. The 
three old men instinctively drew closer 
together. 

Then Markrum said quietly with resig- 
nation, “You are right, Rizzurt. We are 
old men. All our lives we have labored 
with you to find the answer. And we 
grow older ; see how my hand shakes as 
those minute cells of muscle and nerves 
become feeble, and are soon to die. We 
are not long for this world. Now I also 
say that the Great Experiment must be 
performed I” 

He sat down heavily. The other two 
nodded their heads silently, sympa- 
thetically. With a quick practiced hand, 
Rizzurt pushed some buttons. In the 
distance the solenoid-operated remote- 
control switches responded. Then the 
great generators below began to hum 
ponderously. Another series of switches 
operated and the row of giant tubes 
glowed fiery red. Rizzurt drew a test 
arc fifty feet long, and the air was filled 
with the pungent odor of ozone. 

Wirrtel scrutinized the meters through 
his silver rimmed spectacles. 

“TTie voltage is constant, Rizzurt, and 
the tubes are all behaving beautifully. 
Now — any time — you can apply the At- 
omic Brake,” he informed his chief. 

The instruments that will 
measure our speed and direction 
of motion are ready. They will register 
as soon as I throw this switch, which 
will indicate that in this universe of 
billions of stars and planets, that tiny 
speck we call the earth, has stopped in 


122 


AMA2ING STORIES 


its mad flight to nowhere and is content 
to view the aimless motions of the 
others,” Rizzurt said philosophically. 

Now, as if the elements had of a 
sudden become aware of these mites 
of men who were bold enough to tamper 
with the secrets of the universe, the 
crashing of thunder died away in a 
sullen rumble. The wind became soft 
and whining. The black thunder clouds 
passed swiftly across the face of the 
piteous white moon. 

Markrum moved to the window and 
looked out. The clash of the last switch 
did not disturb him as he gazed out 
over a landscape now made luminous by 
tlie light of the moon. He could hear 
Rizzurt’s labored breathing as the man 
bent low over his instruments. 

Then without warning the orb of the 
moon streaked like a flash across the 
sky ! Markrum gave a low cry and 
clutched his head; he was dizzy. But 
when he turned suddenly towards his 
companions he felt eased, his head did 
not bother him nor did his eyes. He 
looked outside again. 

The moon was gone! And in the sky 
thousands of points of light had become 
streaks of fire! 

“We have done it ! We have done it ! 
The movement of the earth is ceasing! 
All the stars and planets of the universe 
are rushing madly by. See, here on 
this dial,” Rizzurt’s voice was hoarse 
and the words came from his mouth, as 
if after great effort. 

With a cry Markrum slumped to the 
floor. He had seen! That which he 
had feared had come true. The solid 
walls of the laboratory were crumbling 
into fine dust ! The metal column 
against which his head was resting had 
become soft and yielding. And with 
horror he realized that the very flesh 
of his hands was wasting away, even as 
he gazed at them with slowly dimming 


eyes. He tried to see his companions; 
though they were but a few feet dis- 
tant they were beyond the range of 
his vision. 

“Rizzurt, Wirrtel,” he called in a 
hoarse whisper for his throat was dry 
and it was agony to speak. Yet he 
knew that it was too late. 

As if from far off came the faint 
answer. Was it Rizzurt’s voice, or was 
it the voice of his own soul? He would 
never know. But he heard it, and 
with calm satisfaction he listened, list- 
ened as the roof of the laboratory 
crumbled and crashed down upon him, 
as the very floor under him became 
powder, as the earth itself trembled vio- 
lently and slowly crumbled into dust. 

“Markrum. Markrum, you were 
right! Did you not warn me that the 
atom obeyed but one law? That the 
atoms and the electrons are kept with- 
in their orbits by electromagnetic force 
that is generated only when all matter, 
everything in the universe, is hurling 
through the magnetic field of space at 
incredible speeds. What happens when 
you stop turning an electric generator? 
The magnetic forces cease and there is 
no current generated. It is thus like- 
wise with the earth. 

“You have truly evolved a stupen- 
dous theory. Arid I have unwittingly 
proved it for you, though there be none 
left to profit by it.” 

Then as Markrum’s old body shriveled 
until nothing but the eyes seemed to be 
alive, those eyes flashed out for the last 
time over the world that had ceased to 
be. Those eyes had looked upon the 
breaking down of matter into its mole- 
cules, then the molecules became atoms, 
and as the chemicals of his flesh and 
bone united with the soft plastic sub- 
stance that was once the earth and the 
fulness thereof, these atoms broke into 
their constituent protons and electrons 
and then like a puff of smoke under 


THE MAN WHO STOPPED THE EARTH 


123 


the ‘ open sky, these charges, too, ceased 
to be. 

Where the planet earth was but a 
few minutes before, now there was 
nothing but void. 

F ar out in interstellar space, beyond 
the galaxy of stars that included the 
solar system, an observer might have 
witnessed a strange and inexplicable phe- 


nomenon. Not that the complete anni- 
hilation of such a minute speck as the 
earth would have been noticeable at 
such a great distance, but a star, the 
Sun, changed its position in the con- 
stellation of which it was a part and 
assumed a new location, while its solar 
system unbalanced by the loss of a planet, 
sought erratically to heal its wound. 
For the cosmic systems must balance. 


The End 


What Do You Know? 

R eaders of amazing Stories have frequently commented upon the fact that there 
is more actual knowledge to be gained through reading its pages than from many 
a text-book. Moreover, most of the stories are written in a popular vein, making it possible 
for anyone to grasp important facts. 

The questions which we give below are all answered on the pages as listed at the end 
of the questions. Please see if you can answer the questions without looking for the 
answer, and see how well you check up on your general knowledge of science. 

1. What apparently trivial experiment led to the development of the dynamo? (See 
page 9.) 

2. What was the derivation of the word “electricity”? (See page 10.) 

3. What was the great and revolutionary invention of the Scottish engineer, James Watt? 
(See page 11,) 

4. Is there any analogy between the first condensing steam engine and the gasoline and 
Diesel engines of the present day? (See page 11-12.) 

5. If blood from the veins was colorless, what would be implied? (See page 16.) 

6. What can be said about the relation of matter and inertia? (See page 20.) 

7. What is the speed of light? (See page 43.) 

8. How do light waves compare with radio waves? (See page 43.) 

9. What is the difference in the vibration of sound waves and light waves? (See page 44.) 

10. Is the speed of sound waves the same in all media? (See page 44.) 

11. What is the approximate speed of sound waves in air? (See page 44.) 

12. What are the principal castes of Driver Ants? (See page 48.) 

13. How old may a Queen Ant be? (See page 49.) 

14. How is the gravitational attraction of a planet calculated? (See page 93.) 

IS. What is the relation of the size of Jupiter referred to the size of the earth? (See 
page 93.) 

16. Calculate the gravitational attraction of Jupiter for bodies on its surface compared to 
that of the earth. (See page 93.) 

17. What misconception of the famous astronomer Schiaparelli’s views about the “canals,” 
of Mars, is due to an erroneous or poor rendering of the Italian word “Canali”? (See 
page 99.) 

18. What is the time of a revolution of the planet Mars? (See page 110.) 

19. What is the time Of rotation of its planets about Mars? (See page 110.) 

20. What is a light year? (See page 110.) 

21. Describe the various movements of the earth in space? (See page 121.) 

22. How would the sidereal bodies appear if the earth were stationary? (See page 122.) 

23. How would the loss of a planet affect the solar system? (See page 123.) 

24. What effect would be anticipated from highly variegated clothing? (See page 126.) 


124 


^ Job of "blending 

By VICTOR ENDERSBY 

A very interesting phenomenon of subjective optics is brought out in this 
story. It is what some readers may consider too vivid a portrayal of the 
seamy side of life, but it is certainly very well done and has a very interesting 
bit of science in its few pages. 


.. — JAKE” lurched through 

B i the doorway and folded two 
■ i creases of his checker-vested 

.A. belly over the edge of the 
counter. His choice in tex- 
tiles was nearly as offensive to the little 
tailor, who now laid down his book 
with a trembling hand, as were a num- 
ber of other things. 

Jake eyed him around the sides of 
a bulging nose in a sinister manner, 
coughing lightly. 

“Jake, I — I just couldn’t make it. 
I’ll get it together as soon as ” 

“Now looka here, Manderson, last 
month’s dues is gonna haye a rear-e,nd 
collision with this’n in just three days. 
D’yuh think y’r health’ll stand it? Watta 
hell tha matter with yuh, anyways? Ain’t 
satisfied with tha protection yuhr gettin’, 
huh?” 

“You’re all wrong, Jake. My God, 
man, don’t you know what business has 
been like?” 

"/ ain’t had no trouble with business, 
fella,” remarked Jake significantly. 
“Maybe if yuhd keep yuhr nose out f’r 
business instead of inna book — ^highbrow 
stuff, huh?” 

He pushed the opened book off the 
counter with one finger, after reading 
the title with contemptuous incompre- 
hension. Thus nonchalantly did he flick 
a chip from the shoulder of death, who 
took up the challenge; instantly, but as 
is often his custom, very, very quietly. 

Manderson stooped quickly to pick 
up the book, more to conceal the un- 


controllable hatred in his face, than 
to rescue his property. But he kept his 
eyes averted to hide the dark flame of 
inspiration which suddenly had kindled 
there. 

“Listen, Jake,” he said after a mo- 
ment. “I’ve got a proposition.” 

“It better be good. I’m listenin’.” 

“Say, Jake, how would you like to 
have a suit such as no man in this town 
ever wore before?” 

“Nah! If I start collectin’ dues in 
trade — whaddya mean, a suit like no 
man ever wore before?” He changed 
his note, curiosity and vanity joining 
hands. 

“Tell you what I’ll do, Jake. I’ll take 
your measure now, and when you come 
for next month’s money, you take your 
suit for both payments if you think it’s 
worth it. If you don’t — ^well. I’ll just 
have to scratch it up somehow.” 

Jake pondered this with porcine sus- 
picion, failing to find any holes in it 
from his point of view 

“Awright. Git outcha tape. Remem- 
ber, strictly no obligations, huh?” 

“No obligations whatever. What could 
I do about it anyway?” 

“Yuhr right. What couldja do about 
it anyway?” grinned Jake. 

J AKE surveyed the remarkable array 
of cloth before him with profane 
astonishment. 

“Well, wottahell ” 

“Now, Jake, just hold everything until 


A JOB OF BLENDING 


125 


you get it on,” said Manderson. “You’ll 
get the idea then.” 

Jake did. What had looked somewhat 
like a crazyquilt on the counter, turned 
out to be a symphony in color-combina- 
tions which would have pleased a far 
more discerning eye than Jake’s. Taken 
one by one the various features of the 
chromatic structure of the new suit — 
the working in of varicolored pocket- 
patches, the oblongs of shading, sug- 
tive of futuristic design, and the rest, 
seemed like sartorial insanity. But taken 
in the ensemble — not only was the 
thing harmoniously striking; it slimmed 
up Jake’s blimp contours in the most 
astonishing manner. Manderson’s un- 
sought customer was struck dumb with 
something akin to awe. 

“Gawd! I wonder if I dast to wear 
it? I’m scared th’ boy’d just kid hell 
outa me. I wish ” 

“Maybe they will. And then again 
maybe you’ll set a new style. You know 
it’s right, don’t you? 

“Yuhr dam tootin’ I do. Fella, watta 
you doin’ in this little two-by-four 
jemt?” 

“That’s what I’m beginning to wonder 
myself,” grinned Manderson. And if 
there was just a little sinister touch in 
his pleasure, it was quite lost on Jake. 

T he gang’s reception of the new suit 
was far from unmixed; but victory 
perched on Jake’s banner when Lupinetti, 
the Big Push, ordered a modified du- 
plicate from Manderson. Lupinetti, be- 
ing accustomed to trembling trepidation 
on the part of the small fry whom he 
“protected,” never suspected that Man- 
derson’s symptoms of jitters at the re- 
ceipt of the order were those of a fisher- 
man who has caught a shark with a line 
intended for mudsuckers. 

Some few days later Jake entered 
the room over the pool hall wearing a 


cane and an air of severe dissatisfac- 
tion with the world. 

“Hey, punk,” he greeted one of the 
youngsters. “Wottahell’s the idea of 
givin’ me tha runaround at Watter son’s 
today?” 

“Whatdaya mean, tha runaround? I 
never sawya.” 

“Hell yuh didn't! Yuh was lookin’ 
straight at me, not ten feet off!” 

“Yuh musta been stewed, Jacob. How 
could I ha’ missed yuh in that rig?” 

Innocent of Biblical learning, the 
reference to “Jacob’s coat” which some 
learned member had set about his ears 
never failed to irritate. 

“Aw-w-w !” he snarled, “yuhr as blind 
as these damn drivers. And, say, 
listen Chief ! That’s somethin’ else. 
Yuh gonna let one uh tha ipob get hit 
twice in a week an’ do nothin’ about 
it?” 

“Them that ain’t quick are the dead,” 
grinned Lupinetti. “Sometimes I think 
yuhr gettin’ too damn fat for the racket, 
anyway!” He eyed Jake in an uncom- 
fortable manner. The latter subsided, 
paling slightly. 

TV/C ANDERSON, with intense but 
mingled emotions, was reading a 
news item which ultimately found its 
way into Ripley’s omnivorous “Believe 
It or Not.” 

“ . The traffic jinx which has 

pursued the ‘Lupinetti Tailor’s Protec- 
tive Association,’ beginning with the 
death of ‘Fat Jake’ Stolzwein last Thurs- 
day, was exorcised by Captain Wheeling’s 
investigations following the killing of 
Lupinetti himself yesterday. It appears 
that the bizarre style of clothing, af- 
fected by the Lupinetti mob, of late, 
renders the wearer almost invisible 
against the average city background. 
Captain Wheeling was led to this dis- 
covery by the testimony of over a dozen 
eyewitnesses, including the traffic officer 


126 


AMAZING STORIES 


on duty and three passengers in the car, 
that no one saw the victim until the 
moment of impact. Captain Wheeling 
states that he will ask the Traffic Bu- 
reau for authorization to conduct an 
extensive series of tests on color combi- 
nations in clothing. He believes that 
this factor plays a hitherto unappreciated 
part in the frequency of traffic accidents.” 

The little tailor, perusing this between 
terror and exultation, began throwing 
his possessions into a suitcase, including 

_ - The 


The Qorona 

ANOTHER scaffolding, moldy with 
age, was being pounded to splin- 
ters by Drs. Donald H. Menzel of Har- 
vard Observatory and J. C. Boyce of 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
Since 1869 the light of the sun’s spectac- 
ular corona, trapped in spectroscopes 
during the scant seconds of a total 
eclipse, has produced on the spectogram 
five mysterious bright lines. Astron- 
omers deduced that the corona, though 
mostly scattered sunlight, was partly 
self-luminous. What element made it 
so? Not knowing, they called it “coron- 
ium.” As recently as last year, in a 
standard work on eclipses, “coronium” 
was treated with respect. The Menzel- 
Boyce report unmasks it as mostly 
oxygen in bizarre atomic metamorphoses. 

The normal oxygen atom has eight 
orbital electrons. Menzel and Boyce 
proceeded to imagine oxygen atoms in 
such a state of excitation that electrons 
could skip freely from one orbit to 
another. Such excited atoms, according 
to quantum theory, should have energy 


a short shelf of books whose titles be- 
trayed an odd taste for a man of his 
humble occupation. 

“The Romance of The Atom:” “Ele- 
ments of Astronomy”; “Relativity”; 
“Paroptic Vision,” and the like, ran the 
titles. His quick fingers paused to run 
reflectively over the gilt letters of the 
last. “The Subjective Qualities of the 
Human Retina; With Some Studies On 
the Military Value of Camouflage. By 
Brunau-Stauer.” 

End 


of the Sun 

levels differing from each other by pre- 
cise amounts. Drs. Menzel and Boyce 
expressed a number of these energy 
levels mathematically. Then (by ex- 
trapolation of the 43-year-old Rydberg 
method) they mathematically expressed 
the light-wave frequencies represented 
by the five mysterious spectrum lines. 

Last, they brought the two sets of 
mathematical expressions together. In 
three cases the correspondence was 
close enough to remind them of keys 
fitting into locks to enable them to say 
that most of “coronium” is oxygen. — 
Time. 

We quote the above from the weekly 
publication Time of New York. Dr. 
Menzel is or should be known to our 
readers as a leading astronomer. He 
has held himself ready to help AMAZ- 
ING STORIES when it is in trouble 
with such things as curved space, the 
Lorenz-Fitzgerald contraction, the Three 
Point problem and other similar mat- 
ters which arise from time to time. — 
The Editor. 


127 


dMS. Found in a "Bo ttle 

By EDGAR ALLAN POE 
[ 1833 ] 

Qui n’a plus qu’tm moment i vivre 
N’a plus rien i dissimuler. 

QttlNAULT, Atys. 


O F my country and of my 
family I have little to say. Ill 
usage and length of years 
have driven me from the one, 
and estranged me from the 
other. Hereditary wealth afforded me 
an education of no common order, and 
a contemplative turn of mind enabled me 
to methodize the stores which early study 
very diligently garnered up. — Beyond all 
things, the study of the German moralists 
gave me great delight; not from any ill- 
advised admiration of their eloquent mad- 
ness, but from the ease with which my 
habits of rigid thought enabled me to 
detect their falsities. I have often been 
reproached with the aridity of my genius ; 
a deficiency of imagination has been im- 
puted to me as a crime ; and the Pyrrhon- 
ism of my opinions has at all times ren- 
dered me notorious. Indeed, a strong 
relish for physical philosophy has, I fear, 
tinctured my mind with a very common 
error of this age — -I mean the habit of 
referring occurrences, even the least sus- 
ceptible of such reference, to the prin- 
ciples of that science. Upon the whole, 
no person could be less liable than my- 
self to be led away from the severe pre- 
cincts of truth by the ignes fatui of super- 
stition. I have thought proper to premise 
thus much, lest the incredible tale I have 
to tell should be considered rather the 
raving of a crude imagination, than the 
positive experience of a mind to which 
the reveries of infancy have been a dead 
letter and a nullity. 


After many years spent in foreign 
travel, I sailed in the year 18 — , from the 
port of Batavia, in the rich and populous 
island, of Java, on a voyage to the Archi- 
pelago of the Sunda islands. I went as 
passenger — having no other inducement 
than a kind of nervous restlessness which 
haunted me as a fiend. 

Our vessel was a beautiful ship of 
about four hundred tons, copper-fastened, 
and built at Bombay of Malabar teak. She 
was freighted with cotton-wool and oil, 
from the Laccadive islands. We had also 
on board coir, jaggeree, ghee, cocoanuts, 
and a few cases of opium. The stowage 
was clumsily done, and the vessel con- 
sequently crank. 

We got under way with a mere breath 
of wind, and for many days stood along 
the eastern coast of Java, without any 
other incident to beguile the monotony 
of our course than the occasional meet- 
ing with some of the small grabs* of the 
Archipelago to which we were bound. 

One evening, leaning over the taffrail, 
I observed a very singular, isolated cloud, 
to the N. W. It was remarkable, as well 
for its color, as from its being the first 
we had seen since our departure from 
Batavia. I watched it attentively until 
sunset, when it spread all at once to the 
eastward and westward, girting in the 
horizon with a narrow strip of vapor, and 
looking like a long line of low beach. 
My notice was soon afterwards attracted 
by the dusky-red appearance of the moon, 
and the peculiar character of the sea. The 
latter was undergoing a rapid change, and 


A lateen rigged Arabian coaiting vessel, usually two masted, and used in the Eastern Asian Archipelago. 


128 


AMAZING STORIES 


the water seemed more than usually trans- 
parent. Although I could distinctly see 
the bottom, yet, heaving the lead, I found 
the ship in fifteen fathoms. The air now 
became intolerably hot, and was loaded 
with spiral exhalations similar to those 
arising from heated iron. As night came 
on, every breath of wind died away, and 
a more entire calm it is impossible to 
conceive. The flame of a candle burned 
upon the poop without the least percepti- 
ble motion, and a long hair, held between 
the finger and thumb, hung without the 
possibility of detecting a vibration. How- 
ever, as the captain said he could perceive 
no indication of danger, and as we were 
drifting in bodily to shore, he ordered 
the sails to be furled, and the anchor let 
go. No watch was set, and the crew, con- 
sisting principally of Malays, stretched 
themselves deliberately upon deck. I 
went below — not without a full presenti- 
ment of evil. Indeed, every appearance 
warranted me in apprehending a simoon. 
I told the captain my fears ; but he paid 
no attention to what I said, and left me 
without deigning to give a reply. My 
uneasiness, however, prevented me from 
sleeping, and about midnight I went upon 
deck. — As I placed my foot upon the 
upper step of the companion-ladder, I 
was startled by a loud, humming noise, 
like that occasioned by the rapid revolu- 
tion of a mill-wheel, and before I could 
ascertain its meaning, I found the ship 
quivering to its centre. In the next in- 
stant, a wilderness of foam hurled us 
upon our beam-ends, and, rushing over 
us fore and aft, swept the entire decks 
from stem to stern. 

The extreme fury of the blast proved, 
in a great measure, the salvation of the 
ship. Although completely water-logged, 
yet, as her masts had gone by the board, 
she rose, after a minute, heavily from the 
sea, and, staggering awhile beneath the 
immense pressure of the tempest, finally 
righted. 


By what miracle I escaped destruction, 
it is impossible to say^ Stunned by the 
shock of the water, I found myself, upon 
recovery, jammed in between the stmi- 
post and rudder. With great difficulty 
I gained my feet, and looking dizzily 
around, was, at first, struck with the idea 
of our being among breakers; so terrific 
beyond the wildest imagination, was the 
whirl-pool of mountainous and foaming 
ocean within which we were engulfed. 
After a while, I heard the voice of an 
old Swede, who had shipped with us at 
the moment of our leaving port. I hallooed 
to him with all my strength, and pres- 
ently he came reeling aft. We soon dis- 
covered that we were the sole survivors 
of the accident. All on deck, with the 
exception of ourselves, had been swept 
overboard; — the captain and mates must 
have perished as they slept, for the cabins 
were deluged with water. Without as- 
sistance, we could expect to do little for 
the security of the ship, and our exer- 
tions were at first paralyzed by the mo- 
mentary expectation of going down. Our 
cable had, of course, parted like pack- 
thread, at the first hrealii of the hurri- 
cane, or we should have been instanta- 
neously overwhelmed. We scudded with 
frightful velocity before the sea, and the 
water made clear breaches over us. The 
framework of our stern was shattered 
excessively, and, in almost every resjiect, 
we had received considerable injury; but 
to our extreme joy we found the pumps 
unchoked, and that we had made no great 
shifting of our ballast. The main fury 
of the blast had already blown over, and 
we apprehended little danger from the 
violence of the wind ; but we looked for- 
ward to its total cessation with dismay; 
well believing, that, in our shattered con- 
dition, we should inevitably perish in the 
tremendous swell which would ensue. But 
this very just apprehension seemed by 
no means likely to be soon verified. For 


MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE 


129 


five entire days and nights — during which 
our only subsistence was a small quantity 
of jaggeree, procured with great difficulty 
from the forecastle — the hulk flew at a 
rate defying computation, before rapidly 
succeeding flaws of wind, which, without 
equalling the first violence of the simoon, 
were still more terrific than any tempest 
I had before encountered. Our course 
for the first four days was, with trifling 
variations, S. E. and by S. ; and we must 
have run down the coast of New Holland. 
— On the fifth day the cold became ex- 
treme, although the wind had hauled 
round a point more to the northward. — 
The sun arose with a sickly yellow lustre, 
and clambered a very few degrees above 
the horizon — emitting no decisive light. 
— There were no clouds apparent, yet the 
wind was upon the increase, and blew 
with a fitful and unsteady fury. About 
noon, as nearly as we could guess, our 
attention was again arrested by the ap- 
pearance of the sun. It gave out no light, 
propeffly so called, but a dull and sullen 
glow without reflection, as if all its rays 
were polarized. Just before sinking 
within the turgid sea, its central fires 
suddenly went out, as if hurriedly ex- 
tinguished by some unaccoimtable power. 
It was a dim, silver-like rim, alone, as it 
rushed down the unfathomable ocean. 

We waited in vain for the arrival of 
the sixth day — ^that day to me has not 
arrived — to the Swede, never did arrive. 
Thenceforward we were enshrouded in 
pitchy darkness, so that we could not 
have seen an object at twenty paces from 
the ship. Eternal night continued to 
envelop us, all unrelieved by the phos- 
phoric sea-brilliancy to which we had been 
accustomed in the tropics. We observed 
too, that, although the tempest continued 
to rage with unabated violence, there was 
no longer to be discovered the usual ap- 
pearance of surf, or foam, which had 
hitherto attended us. All around were 
horrcH*, and thick glo(^, and a black 


sweltering desert of ebony. — Superstiti- 
ous terror crept by degrees into the spirit 
of the old Swede, and my own soul was 
wrapped up in silent wonder. We 
neglected all care of the ship, as worse 
than useless, and securing ourselves, as 
well as possible, to the stump of the miz- 
zen-mast, looked out bitterly into the 
world of ocean. We had no means of 
calculating time, nor could we form any 
guess of our situation. We were, how- 
ever, well aware of having made far- 
ther to the southward than any previous 
navigators and felt great amazement at 
not meeting with the usual impediments 
of ice. In the meantime every moment 
threatened to be our last — every moun- 
tainous billow hurried to overwhelm us. 
The swell surpassed anything I had ima- 
gined possible, and that we were not in- 
stantly buried is a miracle. My com- 
panion spoke of the lightness of our 
cargo, and reminded me of the excellent 
qualities of our ship; but I could not 
help feeling the utter hopelessness of 
hope itself, and prepared myself gloomily 
for that death which I thought nothing 
could defer beyond an hour, as, with 
every knot of way the ship made, the 
swelling of the black stupendous seas be- 
came more dismally appalling. At times 
we gasped for breath at an elevation 
beyond the albatross — at times became 
dizzy with the velocity of our descent into 
some watery hell, where the air grew 
stagnant, and no sound disturbed the 
slumbers of the kraken. 

We were at the bottom of one of these 
abysses, when a quick scream from my 
companion broke fearfully upon the 
night. “See! see!” cried he, shrieking 
in my ears, “Almighty God! see! see!” 
As he spoke, I became aware of a dull, 
sullen glare of red light which streamed 
down the sides of the vast chasm where 
we lay, and threw a fitful brilliancy upon 
our deck. Casting my eyes upwards, I 
beheld a spectacle which froze the cur- 


130 


AMAZING STORIES 


rent of my blood. At a terirfic height 
directly above us, and upon the very verge 
of the precipitous descent, hovered a 
gigantic ship of, perhaps, four thousand 
tons. Although upreared upon the sum- 
mit of a wave more than a hundred times 
her o\vn altitude, her apparent size still 
exceeded that of any ship of the line or 
East India-man in existence. Her huge 
hull was of a deep dingy black, unrelieved 
by any of the customary carvings of a 
ship. A single row of brass cannon pro- 
truded from her open ports, and dashed 
from their polished surfaces the fires of 
innumerable battle-lanterns, which swung 
to and fro about her rigging. But what 
mainly inspired us with horror and aston- 
ishment was that she bore up under a 
press of sail in the very teeth of that 
supernatural sea, and of that ungovern- 
able hurricane. When we first discovered 
her, her bows were alone to be seen, as 
she rose slowly from the dim and horri- 
ble gulf beyond her. For a moment of 
intense terror she paused upon the giddy 
pinnacle, as if in contemplation of her 
own sublimity, then trembled and tottered, 
and — came down. 

At this instant, I knew not what sud- 
den self-possession came over my spirit. 
Staggering as far aft as I could, I awaited 
fearlessly the ruin that was to over- 
whelm. Our own vessel was at length 
ceasing from her struggles, and sinking 
with her head to the sea. The shock of 
the descending mass struck her, conse- 
quently, in that portion of her frame 
which was already under water, and the 
inevitable result was to hurl me, with 
irresistible violence, upon the rigging of 
the stranger. 

As I fell, the ship hove in stays, and 
went about ; and to the confusion ensuing 
I attributed my escape from the notice 
of the crew. With little difficulty I made 
my way unperceived to the main hatch- 
way, which was partially open, and soon 
found an opportunity of secreting my- 


self in the hold. Why I did so I can 
hardly tell. An indefinite sense of awe, 
which at first sight of the navigators of 
the ship had taken hold of my mind, was 
perhaps the principle of my concealment. 
I was unwilling to trust, myself with a 
race of people who had offered, to the 
cursory glance I had taken, so many 
points of vague novelty, doubt, and ap- 
prehension. I therefore thought proper 
to contrive a hiding-place in the hold. 
This I did by removing a small portion 
of the shifting-boards, in such a manner 
as to afford me a convenient retreat be- 
tween the huge timbers of the ship. 

I had scarcely completed my work, 
when a footstep in the hold forced me 
to make use of it. A man passed by 
my place of concealment with a feeble 
and unsteady gait. I could not see his 
face, but had an opportunity of observing 
his general appearance. There was about 
it an evidence of great age and infirmity. 
His knees tottered beneath a load of 
years, and his entire frame quivered un- 
der the burden. He muttered to him- 
self, in a low broken tone, some words 
of a language which I could not under- 
stand, and groped in a corner among a 
pile of singular-looking instruments, and 
decayed charts of navigation. His man- 
ner was a wild mixture of the peevish- 
ness of second childhood, and the solemn 
dignity of a God. He at length went on 
deck, and I saw him no more. 

A feeling, for which I have no name, 
has taken possesion of my soul — a sen- 
sation which will admit of no analysis, 
to which the lessons of by-gone times are 
inadequate, and for which I fear futurity 
itself will offer me no key. To a mind 
constituted like my own, the latter con- 
sideration is an evil. I shall never — I 
know that I shall never — be satisfied with 
regard to the nature of my conceptions. 
Yet it is not wonderful that these con- 
ceptions are indefinite, since they have 


MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE 


131 


their origin in sources so utterly novel. 
A new sense — a new entity is added to 
my soul. 

It is long since I first trod the deck 
of this terrible ship, and the rays of my 
destiny are, I think, gathering to a focus. 
Incomprehensible men! Wrapped up in 
meditations of a kind which I cannot di- 
vine, they pass me by unnoticed. Con- 
cealment is utter folly on my part, for 
the people will not see. It was but just 
now that I passed directly before the eyes 
of the mate — it was no long while ago 
that I ventured into the captain’s own 
private cabin, and took thence the ma- 
terials with which I write, and have writ- 
ten. I shall from time to time continue 
this journal. It is true that I may not 
find an opportunity of transmitting it 
to the world, but I will not fail to make 
the endeavor. At the last moment I will 
enclose the MS. in a bottle, and cast it 
within the sea. 

An incident has occurred which has 
given me new room for meditation. Are 
such things the operation of ungoverned 
Chance? I had ventured upon deck and 
thrown myself down, without attracting 
any notice, among a pile of ratlin-stuff 
and old sails, in the bottom of the yawl. 
While musing upon the singularity of 
my fate, I unwittingly daubed with a tar- 
brush the edges of a neatly-folded stud- 
ding-sail which lay near me on a barrel. 
The studding-sail is now bent upon the 
ship, and the thoughtless touches of the 
brush are spread out into the word Dis- 
covery. . . . 

I have made many observations lately 
upon the structure of the vessel. Al- 
though well armed, she is not, I think, 
a ship of war. Her rigging, build, and 
general equipment, all negative a supposi- 
tion of this kind. What she is not, I can 
easily perceive — what she is I fear it is 
impossible to say. I know not how it 
is, but in scrutinizing her strange model 


and singular cast of spars, her huge size 
and overgrown suits of canvas, her se- 
verely simple bow and antiquated stern, 
there will occasionally flash across my 
mind a sensation of familiar things, and 
there is always mixed up with such in- 
distinct shadows of recollection, an unac- 
countable memory of old foreign chroni- 
cles and ages long ago. . . . 

I have been looking at the timbers of 
the ship. She is built of a material to 
which I am a stranger. There is a 
peculiar character about the wood which 
strikes me as rendering it unfit for the 
purpose to which it has been applied. I 
mean its extreme porousness, considered 
independently of the worm-eaten condi- 
tion which is a consequence of navigation 
in these seas, and apart from the rotten- 
ness attendant upon age. It will appear 
perhaps an observation somewhat over- 
curious, but this wood would have every 
characteristic of Spanish oak, if Spanish 
oak were distended by any unnatural 
means. 

In reading the above sentence a curious 
apothegm of an old weather-beaten Dutch 
navigator comes full upon my recollec- 
tion. “It is as sure,” he was wont to 
say, when any doubt was entertained of 
his veracity, “as sure as there is a sea 
where the ship itself will grow in bulk 
Kke the living body of the seaman.” . . . 

About an hour ago, I made bold to 
thrust myself among a group of the crew. 
They paid me no manner of attention, 
and, although I stood in the very midst 
of them all, seemed utterly unconscious 
of ray presence. Like the one I had at 
first seen in the hold, they all bore about 
them the marks of a hoary old age. Their 
knees trembled with infirmity ; their 
shoulders were bent double with decrepti- 
tude; their shrivelled skins rattled in the 
wind; their voices were low, tremulous 
and broken ; their eyes glistened with the 
rheum of years; and their grey hairs 
streamed terribly in the tempest. Around 
them, on every part of the deck, lay scat- 


132 


AMAZING STORIES 


tered mathematical instruments of the 
most quaint and obsolete construction. . . . 

I mentioned some time ago the bend- 
ing of a studding-sail. From that period 
the ship, being thrown dead off the wind, 
has continued her terrific course due 
south, with every rag of canvas packed 
upon her, from her trucks to her lower 
studding-sail booms, and rolling every 
moment her top-gallant yard-arms into 
the most appalling hell of water which 
it can enter into the mind of man to 
imagine. I have just left the deck, where 
I find it impossible to maintain a foot- 
ing, although the crew seem to experience 
little inconvenience. It appears to me a 
miracle of miracles that our enormous 
bulk is not swallowed up at once and for- 
ever. We are surely doomed to hover 
continually upon the brink of Eternity, 
without taking a final plunge into the 
abyss. From billows a thousand times 
more stupendous than any I have ever 
seen, we glide away with the facility of 
the arrowy sea-gull ; and the colossal wa- 
ters rear their heads above us like de- 
mons of the deep, but like demons con- 
fined to simple threats and forbidden to 
destroy. I am led to attribute these fre- 
quent escapes to the only natural cause 
which can account for such effect. 
I must suppose the ship to be within the 
influence of some strong current, or im- 
petuous under-tow. . . . 

I have seen the captain face to face, 
and in his own cabin — ^but, as I expected, 
he paid me no attention. Although in 
his appearance there is, to a casual ob- 
server, nothing which might bespeak him 
more or less than man — still a feeling of 
irrepressible reverence and awe mingled 
with the sensation of wonder with which 
I regarded him. In stature he is nearly 
my own height; that is, about five feet 
eight inches. He is of a well-knit and 
compact frame of body, neither robust 
nor remarkably otherwise. But it is the 
singularity of the expression which reigns 


upon the face — it is the intense, the won- 
derful, the thrilling evidence of old age, 
so utter, so extreme, which excites within 
my spirit a sense — a sentiment ineffable. 
His forehead, although little wrinkled, 
seems to bear upon it the stamp of a 
myriad of years. — His grey hairs are 
records of the past, and his greyer eyes 
are Sibyls of the future. The cabin 
floor was thickly strewn with strange, 
iijjn-clasped folios, and mouldering in- 
struments of science, and obsolete long- 
forgotten charts. His head was bowed 
down upon his hands, and he pored, with 
a fiery unquiet eye, over a paper which 
I took to be a commission, and which, 
at all events, bore the signature of a mon- 
arch. He muttered to himself, as did 
the first seaman whom I saw in the hold, 
some low peevish syllables of a foreign 
tongue, and although the speaker was 
close at my elbow, his voice seemed to 
reach my ears from the distance of a 
mile. . . . 

The ship and all in it are imbued with 
the spirit of Eld. The crew glide to and 
fro like the ghosts of buried centuries; 
their eyes have an eager and uneasy 
meaning; and when their fingers fall 
athwart my path in the wild glare of the 
battle-lanterns, I feel as I have never felt 
before, although I have been all my life 
a dealer in antiquities, and have imbibed 
the shadows of fallen columns at Baalbec, 
and Tadmor, and PersepoHs, until my 
very soul has become a ruin. . . . 

When I look around me I feel ashamed 
of my former apprehensions. If I trem- 
bled at the blast which has hitherto at- 
tended us, shall I not stand aghast at a 
warring of wind and ocean, to convey any 
idea of which the words |ornado and 
simoom are trivial and ineffective? All in 
the immediate vicinity of the ship is the 
blackness of eternal night, and a chaos 
of foamless water; but, about a league 
on dther side of us, may be seen, indis- 
tinctly and at intervals, stupendous ram- 


MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE 


133 


parts of ice, towering away into the deso- 
late sky, and looking like the walls of 
the universe. . . . 

As I imagined, the ship proves to be in 
a current; if that appellation can properly 
be given to a tide which, howling and 
shrieking by the white ice, thunders on to 
the southward with a velocity like the 
headlong dashing of a cataract. 

To conceive the horror of my sensa- 
tions is, I presume, utterly impossible; 
yet a curiosity to penetrate the mysteries 
of these awful regions, predominates even 
over my despair, and will reconcile me to 
the most hideous aspect of death. It is 
evident that we are hurrying onwards to 
some exciting knowledge — some never-to- 
be-imparted secret, whose attainment is 
destruction. Perhaps this current leads us 
to the southern pole itself. It must be 
confessed that a supposition apparently so 
wild has every probability in its favor. . . . 

The crew pace the deck with unquiet 
and tremulous step; but there is upon 
their countenances an expression more of 
the eagerness of hope than of the apathy 
of despair. 


In the meantime the wind is still in our 
poop, and, as we carry a crowd of can- 
vas, the ship is at times lifted bodily from 
out the sea — Oh, horror upon horror ! the 
ice opens suddenly to the right, and to the 
left, and we are whirling dizzily, in im- 
mense concentric circles, round and round 
the borders of a gigantic amphitheatre, 
the summit of whose walls is lost in the 
darkness and the distance. But little time 
will be left me to ponder upon my destiny 
— the circles rapidly grow small — ^we are 
plunging madly within the grasp of the 
whirlpool — and amid a roaring, and bel- 
lowing, and thundering of ocean and of 
tempest, the ship is quivering, oh God! 
and — agoing down. 

Note. — The “MS. Found in a Bottle” 
was originally published in 1833, and it 
was not until many years afterwards that 
I became acquainted with the maps of 
Mercator, in which the ocean is repre- 
sented as rushing, by four mouths, into 
the (northern) Polar Gulf, to be absorbed 
into the bowels of the earth ; the Pole it- 
self being represented by a black rock, 
towering to a prodigious height. 


The End. 






134 


AMAZING STORIES 


March, 1934 


g gri-&e-ussiONS 


In this departratst we shall dissuaa every nenth taples of foterest to readers. The oditera lovite eerretpoadenae ea all 
eubjsots directly or iadirestly related to the sterlee appearing in this magailne. In cate a tpeeial personal answer la 
required, a noialaal foe of 2M to oever tiaie and postage la required. 


There le No Thou^t of Discontinuing the 
Questionnaire in Amazing Stories 
Editor , Amazing Stories: 

I have been reading your magazine faith- 
fully for a few years past. 

I see, now, that there is something very im- 
portant missing. It is the questionnaire, en- 
titled: “What Do You Know?” Let me tell you 
how 1 happened to start reading Amazing 
Stories, and you will see why that question- 
naire is necessary: Being a Frenchman, the'- 
only fiction stories I ever read were those of 
Jules Verne, So, incidentally, I happened to 
learn English, It was then that I saw, a 
munber of Amazing Stories open as adver- 
tisement at the page where h shows that “What 
Do You Know?” I found out then, that these 
questions had no answer in my young head. 
So I have been reading Amazing Stories ever 
since. 

Now, let me tell you that your magazine 
is the best of its kind in the world. I can 
read six languages and I am receiving reading 
matter from all over the world, and none of 
the others can be compared with Amazing 
Stories. Your authors are all (except a very 
very few) of the most interesting writers and 
their style is always very fascinating. In 
one word anyone who likes to learn something 
will always keep reading Amazing Stories 
when he is acquainted with it. 

Wishing you sir, the best of success. 

Alfred Maud, 

Neuville, Comte de Portneuf, 

Quebec, Canada. 

(We have not the least idea of discontinu- 
ing the Questionnaire. We have, to a certain 
extent, settled upon an approximate number 
of twenty questions for it and wish to have it 
as much a feature of Amazing Stories as are 
the Discussions. We feel that Amazing Stories 
in developing the Discussions and in adhering 
to the Questionnaire, which has only been omit- 
ted once in many years, is doing its most 
characteristic work. Amazing Stories is now 
being printed in Canada so you can get it 
at a reasonable price. — Editor.) 


An Encouraging Letter with Suggestion. 

Editor , Amazing Stories : 

About the new Amazing Stories. — It’s 
ejtcellent. Small size, more pages and stories 
and a reprint. I’d never believe it. Am glad 
to see “Skylark” and “Red Dust” to be re- 


printed but they are easy to be had. Let us 
have older stories, like ‘"The Darkness and 
the Dawn” series, “War in the Air” by 
George Allen England, “Sea Demon” by Vic- 
tor Rousseau, “Blind Spot” by Flint & Hall 
and other old tales published before 1920. 

Whoops for “Triplanctary” . . . only one 
plea . . . Let Paul or Wesso illustrate. Must 
say though, that the current issue cover is the 
best Morey has ever done. Congratulations. 

I know Amazing Stories are on the up- 
grade now. Keep it up, I’m with you. 

Daniel McPhail, 

110 S. W. 26th Street, 
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 

_ (This letter can speak for itself.— We pub- 
lish it to show that there is a feeling abroad 
that Amazing Stories is emulating “Old Man 
River,” it keeps on “rolling along.” — Editor.) 


Oh, Dear— Well Have to Stand It 
Editor , Amazing Stories; 

I have examined a copy of the latest issue of 
your magazine, and note with deep regret the 
many signs of its retrogression from the high 
standards set earlier in the year. Amazing 
Stories for a time occupied the position of a 
bright pinnacle rising from the slough of the 
average run of magazine fiction; but now the 
pinnacle is toppled, the mighty hath fallen, the 
idol displayeth feet of clay: in the words of 
one of the stories in your current issue, the 
Washington Monument has been stolen. 

You have abruptly and without warning 
abandoned the new cover, which was the most 
striking innovation made by any science fiction 
magazine since the inception of that form of 
literature in America. You have repudiated 
the old size, destroyed the former dignified 
format, and degraded the publication downward 
to the mediocrity of the ordinary pulp paper 
horror. For what reasons? 

I was among the many hundreds of your old 
readers who must have rushed to applaud and 
give thanks for the new cover; on publishing 
my letter, you _ remarked that the majority of 
those commenting with regard to the change 
had cheered the novelty, and that the new cover 
was now pretty well established. Now that 
beautiful innovation has been abandoned, you 
have gone back to the lurid blarings of former 
days. Once again many puzzled readers, be- 
wildered subscribers who have stuck with you 
through thick and thin, through Hoover pros- 


March, 1934 


AMAZING STORIES 


135 


perity and the New Deal, must furtively sidle 
up to their newsdealers and ask in hoarse, 
ashamed voices for their copies of Amazing 
Stories. 

I am not writing this letter with any in- 
tention of upbraiding you, but only with the 
hope of helpfulness in my heart. You have said 
to us, your readers: “This is your magazine. 
We will make it what you want it to be.” I 
truly believe your sincere wish and constant 
striving is for a slow but steady improvement 
in the status of Amazing Stories. But I 
want to tell you that I think, and many others 
will agree with me, that you have made a very 
grave mistake in changing the size and mutilat- 
ing the cover. One of your competitors did 
the same thing a year or two ago, and has never 
recovered the loss of prestige incurred, though 
subsequently forced by its readers to acknowl- 
edge the error. I am inclined to predict that 
will be the case with Amazing Stories. Popu- 
lar demand will cry out for a return to the 
better days of old. 

Now I’d like to comment on one or two other 
things. First, Mr. Brandt’s very interesting 
book notices. In most instances I agree with 
him heartily in his critical judgment, but in 
reviewing “Man’s Mortality” by Michael Arlen, 
he has badly fallen down. “Man’s Mortality” 
is a magnificent book, top ranking 99% of the 
science fiction amiually published in America, 
and taking its place on the seven hills of imagi- 
native literature with Merritt’s “Moon Pool,” 
Smith’s “Skylark,” and Well’s “War of the 
Worlds,” which are among the best ten stories 
of scientific fiction yet to see the light. Readers, 
don’t be frightened away by Mr. Brandt’s dis- 
couraging comment. You’ll find “Man’s Mor- 
tality” a marvelous piece of work; better writ- 
ten by far than “When Worlds Collide,” which 
is just a hack story of the old creaking formula, 
world-endangered-by-approaching planet-league- 
of-scientists-formed-to-seek-salvation-for-earth: 
I agree with you, Mr. Brandt, it will make 
a swell yam for the movies. There is the 
usual triangle, the inevitable love sick couple, 
the old hokum about a new Adam and Eve 
starting over on another world. Ad infinitum, 
ad nauseam. “Man’s Mortality” is different. The 
people who walk Michael Arlen’s pages are 
real ; they breathe, they live and love and curse 
and pray and sweat and die. They are human 
beings made of flesh and blood, not outlines cut 
out from a machine’s mold, and stamped with 
the metallic imprint of the formula. More power 
to Michael Arlen! With one book of science 
fiction, he takes a giant stride forward, to a 
place in fantasy’s hall of immortals, with Mer- 
ritt and Wells and Serviss. 

Now for the last thing I want to get off my 
chest. Thank heaven you’ve abandoned those 
juvenile subheadings. They gave repeated 
gratuitous insults to the intelligence of your 
readers. But you have gone them one better in 
your comment on “The Theft of the Washing- 


ton Monument.” In your editorial squib you 
give a complete synopsis of the whole story — so 
why should anyone bother to read it? As for 
myself, I did bother to read it, but the effect 
was ruined because I knew everything that was 
going to come before it happened. Perhaps you 
were giving us a little time-traveling yourself? 

But here’s to Amazing Stories, and to you, 
Mr. Editor 1 You make mistakes, you’re only 
human, you can’t please everybody, but all in 
all you manage, as the British say, to muddle 
through. Somehow you are able to turn out a 
pretty darn good magazine every month. And 
let me whisper this information in your ear: 
if you decide to print A. S. every month on 
purple paper, in a magazine three inches wide 
and twelve feet longth, with illustrations by 
Leonardo Da Vinci, I’ll still read it, so long 
as you concede us one thing : always print 
Amazing Stories. 

Here’s my vote on the reprint question : For- 
get about them. The two or three you have 
lately used have only served to illustrate the 
fact that science fiction has come a long dis- 
tance since the days of the old timers. And 
do you want your present, living authors to 
starve to death for lack of markets? 

Don’t reprint the “Skylark of Space.” Tell 
Smith to get busy on something new. It wall be 
interesting to watch him try to exceed himself, 
if that can be done. 

Frank K. Kelly, 

2912 Charlotte, 
Kansas City, Mo. 

(We are going to let this long letter speak 
for itself and it certainly is doing it in great 
style. But we want to get something off our 
mind also. We would like you to give us your 
unbiased opinion, as soon as possible, on a story 
which appeared in the December issue, en- 
titled “Into the Meteorite Orbit.” — Editor.) 

-t 

Coinments on the October Issue of 
Amazing Stories 
Editor, Amazing Stories: 

The October issue of A. S. was the best one 
you’ve published this year. 

“Into the Hydrosphere” took first prize, 
please continue the Jameson series, Mr. Jones. 
The other stories follow in order of merit. 

“The Men Without Shadows,” by Stanton A. 
Coblentz who is remembered for his fine work 
in “The Sunken World.” 

“Theft of the Washington Monument,” by 
Robert Arthur, Jr., this was his first tale for 
A. S., but it certainly was a masterpiece. 

“When the Universe Shrank,” by J. Lewis 
Burtt. I can hardly wait for the next issue. 

“The Tree Terror,” by Dr. Keller was a 
honey but I don’t believe that any story that he 
has written can beat “The Revolt of the 
Pedestrains.” 

“The Diamond Lens.” by Fitz-James O’Brien 
was a swell short story. 


136 


AMAZING STORIES 


March, 1934 


“The Superman,’’ by David Speaker Awasn’t 
so good. 

Morey is “all x,” the new type of cover 
gives a new air to the mag. 

Give us more yams from the following 
authors : 

Leslie F. Stone, Clare Unger Harris (the 
weaker sex can sure write good stories), 
George McLociard, A. F. Starzl, G. Peyton 
Wertenbaker, Robert A. Wait, P. Schuyler 
Miller and the Kline brothers. 

I wish that you could publish one of Jack 
Williamson’s yarns in every issue. He’s an 
author that can’t be beaten. His best story is 
“The Stone From the Green Star,” although 
“The Green Girl” nearly surpasses it. 

When are you going to reprint the “Skylark” 
stories? How about the “Moon Pool” when 
you finish the “Skylark?” 

Here’s hoping you’ll never change back to the 
large size. 

Edward Canielle, 

R. F. D. No. 7, Erie, Pa. 

(After the many scoldings which we have 
recdved, this letter is certainly a comfort. We 
hope that your letter will be attentively con- 
sidered by the writers of Discussions. We are 
somewhat uncertain about the “Skylark” 
stories. What you say about the small size 
magazine certainly coincides with the views of 
the writers. — Editor.) 


A Letter Sugiiestinfi an Enitlish Edition of 
Amazing Stories 
Editor, Amazing Stories; 

Why do you not bring out a special edition 
of your magazine in England? Amazing 
Stories is very popular in England, a fact 
which is proved by the number of letters from 
English readers in these columns. 

I am aware that various other American 
magazines, and excellent publications in their 
way, have started English editions and dropped 
them after a few issues, but I firmly believe that 
Amazing Stories would have a difiFerent ex- 
perience. My reasons for thinking so are, 
firstly, that science fiction is international : 
Gangster Stories and Wild West Stories are 
not: secondly, that the general style of your 
magazine and the stories therein is nearer to 
what an Englishman is accustomed to than that 
of other mags, which, apart altogether from the 
slang which the average Englishman will not 
have, in striving to be sensational become 
jerky. You know what I mean, those short, 
dip^ sentences that des^oy all an English- 
man’s pleasure in a story and make him think 
he is reading a foreign language. 

What of it brother Britons? I want to see 
science fiction established in England, sold on 
every bookstall. (Newsstand.) Do you? 

Festus Pragnell, 
Southampton, England. 


(We have recently arranged for the publi- 
cation of a Canadian Amazing Stories and 
your suggestion about an English edition we 
will submit to the proper oSicial. Amazing 
Stories feels that it cannot have anything that 
is too good, that is to say, we want to give 
a very high grade of literature and avoid pre- 
cisely the things which you say an Englishman 
will not have. Without trying specifically to 
carry out this idea, we felt that Amazing 
Stories is not a sinner in the way you describe 
and it is interesting to notice that from England 
and the Colonies we always get favorable letters 
of comment — the scoldings come from nearer 
home. — Editor.) 


A Very Interesting Bit of Criticism from a 
Very Attentive Reader 
Editor, Amazing Stories : 

Now you are getting ‘Amazing.’ Seven years 
of fair constancy, at times good, at times bad, 
with a fine recent improvement in covers, but 
some suspicious stories, and now “this.” 

Being close fo criticism, I have heard, ‘Amaz- 
ing’ has treated fans atrociously. I haven’t 
read the stories yet, but if they match the cover, 
the/ll be terrible. And the new size. . . 1” 
That’s one reaction. 'The writer had especial 
cause for disappointment, being that she binds 
her issues. That does spoil things. 

As far as I’m concern^, I don’t particularly 
like the change either. It’s funny, coming right 
on top of all the promises. But I guess it’s 
better to have some magazine than none at 
all, if that was your situation. 

Going back an issue — first time you ever com- 
bined numbers I History is being made rapidly. 
I liked Leo Morey’s cover very much. The 
colors were peculiar and “other-worldish,” and 
the figures of the two men in oxygen masks 
were done just right. Following the cover, the 
story from which it was taken was good : “The 
Meteor-Man of Plaa.” “Essence of Life” I en- 
joyed, and “Silicon Empire” to a slightly lesser 
degree. The rest of the stories were pretty 
punk. I mean, after all the title is Amazing 
Stories. Now read “Head Hunters Fooled and 
Foiled.” I like that; it was a foolish little 
thing; but it did not make my eyes pop out. 
Walter Kateley’s “Children of the Great 
Magma” I enjoyed until the explorers found 
the inevitable Lost People. For that reason, I 
don’t want to read any more polar stories for a 
long time. They leave me “cold !” Mr. Kate- 
ley’s Quarterly yam, “Insects Extraordi- 
nary,” though now a year or so old, was a 
novelet, of a type of which I would appreciate 
his writing more. Very different and inter- 
esting. 

Quarterly has brought something to my 
mind. Yes, you know : where is it? Has been 
about eight months now. If you've discon- 
tinued publication, please why keep it a secret? 
I hate to keep pestering the news agents. They 
don’t know, anyway. 


March, 1934 


AMAZING STORIES 


137 


Now, the October number. An adequate 
cover. Morey has very well pictured th? “Men 
With No Shadows.” And there’s a story you 
can be proud of I a story that makes it worth 
while half-reading through some other poor 
ones. Yes, an excellent story, “The Men With- 
out Shadows,’’ and an excellent illustration by 
Leo Morey. “The Theft of the Washington 
Monument” a readable short, with another fine 
job by Morey. Hold your breath and continue 
to “When the Universe Shrank”: the issue is 
still unspoiled. J. Lewis Burtt could well have 
made this a novel, I’m sure ; but it is fine so far 
as a two-part serial. I mention its novel pos- 
sibilities, because it at once suggests itself to 
my mind that this shrinking of the earth would 
give rise to many more interesting situations 
than that alone of the lack of food, which Mr. 
Burtt uses as hjs theme. How, for instance 
— well, all buildings would have to be tom 
down. A (relative to shrinking earth) big, 
bulky twelve-foot man can’t get around in a 
house built for one of half his proportions. 
Surely no one could slide into one of the low, 
streamlined automobiles. Imagine trying to 
play a piano (for example and music must go 
on) with fingers, each covering three keys ! Etc. 

“The Tree Terror” is indeed, as ydu say, 
“A KelleresqUe flight of fancy.” More flights 
to the famous Dr.! — Dr. Keller, you’re just 
about the best thing out! — I don’t know what 
would happen if he and Stanton A. Coblentz 
should collaborate! But they’re great enough 
by themselves. 

Didn’t care for "Into the Hydrosphere.” It 
read like an Edmond Hamilton story, but with- 
out Ed’s style. However, an author-fan wrote 
me, “That Dr. Jameson story in the current 
Amazing Stories is a ‘darb.’” So what. . . . 

As for The Superman,” I hope I never run 
across another of these same old diary stories. 

I think this is only about the fifth time I’ve 
run across “The Diamond Lens” in a science- 
fiction magazine. But it’s a grand little yarn. 
I fike that type, i.e. "Girl in the Golden Atom,” 
“Into the Green Prism,” etc. 

Imagine we’ll all be writing about “Triplane- 
tary,” “Through the Andes,” and several other 
of those stories you list. They sound good. 
“Battery of Hate” is an interesting title. I feel 
like saying “intriguing title, but my! after 
discovering your pet peeves to be "sdentlfic- 
tion” and “intriguing” . . 1 May I refer you, 
however, to your own Fall 1930 Quarterly? 
Its cover: "Scientifiction Stories by”: Per- 
sonally, I like “scientifiction” . . - 

Incidentally, reviewing this Fall ’30 Quar- 
terly, I notice the name of Aladra Septama, an 
author who has disappeared. He should re- 
appear. It would be good to see his stories in 
your pages again. 

Forrest J. Ackerman, 

530 Staples Avenue, 

” San Francisco, Cil. 


*'You say we are getting “Amazing” — that 
ma). be, but we are on the point of getting 
amazed at the curious criticisms which we are 
receiving and which vary in an astonishing de- 
gree, one from the other. The Quarterly is 
now on the newsstands. We can only hope 
that Mr. Septama will read this letter or, at 
least the last few lines to learn of his disap- 
pearance. What does the word ‘darb’ mean? — 
Editor.) 


The Small Format Objected to by One Reader 

Editor, Amazing Stories: 

I have noticed with deep regret that you 
have changed the size of Amazing. It seems 
to me that after eight and one half years of 
prosperity on Amazing’s part, such a change 
would be deemed inadvisable. 

However, I believe you know what you are 
doing, but please remember the failures others 
have made in such a change. And above all, 
I sincerely hope that Amazing will not follow 
in its footsteps and print in the “library” size 
for a whole year. But nevertheless, I am con- 
fident that “Good ol’ Amazing” will return 
eventually to the more dignified nine by twelve 
size. 

One naturally classifies a small size maga- 
zine with the common pulp that clutters the 
newsstands so to-day. 

I am proud of my complete collection of 
Amazing, and this small size seems to detract 
from the appearance of the whole set. When 
bound this small size will also make the col- 
lection uneven. 

Otherwise the magazine is as nearly per- 
fect as could be possibly wanted. You al- 
ways get ‘the cream of the crop’, and that is 
what we want. 

In closing I want to apologize if I have been 
too severe, but all of my remarks have been 
only in the interest of Amazing Stories. 

Louis F. Torrance, 
Winfield, Kansas. 

(We wish you would read some of the 
letters commending the change of format. We 
do not mind severity, although we cannot agree 
with you m thinking that it is a change for 
the worst The library format certainly gives 
the book more convenient sire and our hopes are 
just as strong as our intentions are. Good in- 
tentions without a backing of hope are of 
little value. — Editor.) 


Copies of Amazing Stories for Sale — 
Correspondents in Science Wanted 
Editor, Amazing Stories: 

To Those Whom It May Concern — I have 
on hand a complete file of the Amazing 
Stories magazine from August 1927 to August 
1933 — a six-year period — which circumstances 
compel me to dispose of, and which I will 
gladly sell collectively or in groups of yearly 
issues to those sending me the highest offers. 
Also I would like to get into correspondence 


138 AMAZING 

with some individual interested in scienrT — 
Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy, Physics, ,tc. — 
and Science Fiction. 

Louis W. Clark, 
Norman, Oklahoma, 
Masonic Dormitory. 

A Very Pleasant Word from a Reader — 
The Jules Verne Picture 

Editor, Amazing Stories : 

I have enjoyed Amazing Stories so much. 
It doesn’t come out often enough. I should 
like to buy back numbers of science fiction; are 
they obtainable? 

A letter in the July issue suggests that you 
enlarge the Jules Veme picture. I think this 
is an excellent idea. Why don’t you do it? 
I could frame it and hang it on the wall, and 
then my friends would comment upon it and 
I’d have no trouble introducing the topic of 
science fiction. There are a lot of people who 
have never heard of Amazing Stories — but 
I’m telling them what they are missing. 

M. Stanbery, 

1523 Harmony Street, 

New Orleans, La. 

(You must realize that the smaller format of 
Amazing Stories operated to crowd out the 
Jules Verne picture, but we will keep in mind 
what you say and will try to have some sys- 
tem of reproducing it before many numbers 
have appeared. While there are naturally 
many people who have never heard of Amaz- 
ing Stories, we feel that we have an unusual 
number of warm friends. — Editor.) 


A Letter Including Some Inaccuracies — Who Is 
T. O’Connor? — Reprints Objected To — 
Early Issues and Reprints 
Editor, Amazing Stories; 

‘We will never have reprints,’ ‘We will 
never reduce our size,’ ‘we will never go bi- 
monthly,’ ‘The Quarterly is only being redated 
to correspond with the dates of issue, it will 
still be a quarterly,’ and other similar state- 
ment have been made in the editor’s comments 
to various letters printed in the ‘Discussions’. 

And then the Quarterly went semi-annual 
and now seems to be gone forever. And now 
the Monthly has had a bimonthly and has taken 
reducing treatments. And it has a reprint 
which has been reprinted too many times be- 
fore. Merely the suggestion of reprints which 
was made three months ago was bad enough, 
but here they are and along with them a pub- 
licity campaign of selected letters asking for 
reprints. If you must have reprints use stories 
which have never appeared in the science fic- 
tion or weird stories magazines. 

When Clifton Amsbury was told the maga- 
zine had reduced its size and had a reprint, 
he couldn’t believe it ‘What!’ he said, ‘When 
did T. O’Connor die ?’ But no, the name on the 
editorial page was still that of the former 
guardian of the best tradition of science fiction. 


STORIES March, 1934 

There was also a notice that this new policy 
was made at a greater expense and so on and 
so on. We know that this is a tough time for 
magazines and that using stories for which you 
already have acquired the rights is cheaper than 
buying new ones and that the small size is 
cheaper than the large, and we being loyal 
science fiction fans sympathize with you and 
pledge our continued support in spite of our 
disappointment with the great ‘surprise’ we had 
to wait two months for. In fact one of us even 
likes the new size, but PLEASE cut the edges 
smooth. 

Golden Gate Scientific Association, 

Lester Anderson, Secretary. 

Clifton Amsbury, Secretary, I. S. A. 

A. M. MacDermott, 
Editor, Cosmology, 1. S. A. 

President, G.G.S.A. 

Fred Anger. 

(This is a curious letter. We wish the 
writer in order to see how Amazing Stories 
started in the matter of reprints would run over 
some of our earlier numbers which contained, 
it is fair to say, comparatively little except re- 
prints — some complete and some continued 
reprint stories, perhaps four or five to a num- 
ber. As for reduction of size, we may say we 
have taken a step to graduating into the class 
of such magazines as the ‘‘Atlantic Monthly.” 
You say the Quarterly seems to have gone 
forever. It certainly has not. Your objection 
to reprints has induced you to make an incor- 
rect statement. There has been no publicity 
campaign of selected letters. If there had 
been such, this letter would not fit in with it. 
We do not understand what the death of T. 
O’Connor could have to do with Amazing 
Stories. There is no such name as that on 
our staff and never has been. We can inform 
Mr. Amsbury that the old time Amazing 
Stories contained any number of reprints. — 
Editor.) 


Comments on the October Issue of Amazing 
Stories — Back Numbers for Sale 
Editor, Amazing Stories: 

Wish to comment on October issue of Amaz- 
ing Stories. Besides the improvement in size, 
I particularly like the Book Section — In the 
Realm of Books, by C. A. Brandt. Brandt is 
a great science fiction critic. I admire his 
judgment of science fiction. 

The October issue had a wonderful set' up 
of stories — stories by well known science fic- 
tion authors. May the future issues of Amaz- 
ing Stories carry on the high standard set by 
this issue. “The Diamond Lens,” by Fitz-James 
O’Brien I had read somewhere before. I think 
it was in an early issue of Amazing Stories. 
I enjoyed reading it again. 

I was overjoyed to read in Brandt’s column 
that “When Worlds Collide” is to be shown 
on the screen. I had the pleasure of seeing 
“Deluge” on the screen the other d -, and en- 


March, 1934 AMAZING STORIES 139 


joyed it. May we have more science fiction 
pictures. 

I have been reading Amazing Stories since 
its earliest isues, and I wish to say that the 
October, 1933, issue is the first issue, for many 
years, which approaches in real science fiction 
entertainment value, the mark set by those early 
issues. In fact, I believe the current issue 
rises above that mark. 

I have noticed, often, in the discussions col- 
umn, science fiction fans asking for back num- 
bers. I have a number of science fiction maga- 
zines, Amazing Stories and others, collected 
over a period of years, which I am willing to 
mail to anyone for below cost prices. Will 
mail list of science books and magazines in my 
possession to anyone interested. 

Keep up the good work. 

Peter Gcrioano, 

6 Wall Street, 
New Bedford, Mass. 

(Mr. Brandt is an absolute authority on 
science fiction. He has given much of his time 
to it for many years and he has an astonishing 
familiarity with the literature of it. “The Dia- 
mond Lens,” to which you allude, was written 
many years ago. The author wrote but a few 
stories, but “The Diamond Lens” today is con- 
sidered an absolute classic, so much so that a 
very high priced illu.strated edition with some 
other work of O’Brien has been published with- 
in a few months. — Editor.) 


A Letter from the Irish Free State 

Editor, Amazing Stories; 

Congratulations on bringing Amazing 
Stories right bang up in front I Those covers 
by Sigmond turned the scale in favor of Amaz- 
ing Stories, and howl The pan of said scales 
nearly bust the floor. Those covers which have 
attired A. S. since January are just superb. 
Don’t lose Sigmond whatever you have to do. 
All my pals to whom I loan my A. S. issues are 
commenting upon the magnificent covers and, 
no doubt, thousands of new readers every- 
where are commenting in like manner. The 
stories, too, of lat^ have generally gone ahead, 
and here is a list from the March and April 
issues in the order in which they appealed to 
me ; 

(1) “Beyond the End of Space.” Great scien- 
tific stuff, smacking reminiscently of “Skylark 
of Space," though of course, away behind that 
magnificent chronicle. 

(2) “Stellarite.” Close second. Good inter- 
planetary yam. 

(3) “When the Comet Returned.” Fine. 

(4) “The Phantom of Terror.” Enthralling. 

(5) “The Tomb of Time.” Gripping, but 
marred by my old aversion, love-interest. 

(6) “In the Scarlet Star.” Well written 
thriller. 

(7) “The Memory Stream.” Graphic, in- 
teresting tale. 


(8) “Flame Worms of Yokku.” Science plus 
actimi. 

(9) “Ancients of Easter Island.” Black 
magic mars this. 

(10) “Universal Merry-go-round,” somewhat 
error-laden, but quite interesting. 

I have been looking forward to seeing some 
more of Dr. Jameson and the Zoromes of Zor. 
Tell the author to get them going again, and 
to make it snappy. The adventures of Dr. 
Jamieson and the Zoromes of Zor were among 
the best stories you ever had. Also sound 
Dr. Smith on the possibility of more “Skylark” 
tales. He has had long enough now to write 
up a smasher, so what about it? 

Keep up the present standard and you have 
nothing to worry about 1 

Best wishes, 

Fitz-Gerald P. Grattan, 

11 Frankfield Terrace, 
Summerhill South, 
Cork, I. F. S. 

(There are several more Jameson stories in 
our hands which will soon be poblished. The 
first ones have been very much appreciated and 
we are also, as you observe, running a continued 
story by Dr. Smith. We think you will find 
the tale by Dr. Smith to be what you call “A 
smasher.” We are always especially inter- 
ested in getting letters from foreign countries, 
but we have received comparatively few from 
the Irish Free State. Your signature shows 
that you have a very distinguished name.— 
Editor.) 


Two Readers Join in Commendation — ^They Ask 

“Which Is the Best Science Fiction Story P” 
Editor, Amazing Stories; 

We have just finished the July issue of 
"our” magazme. In comparing this issue with 
that of the April, it is hard to believe that the 
two were edited by the same editor. 

The Stories were excellent, containing just 
enough science to be readily gn'asped by the 
ordinary reader. As usual Dr. Keller pre- 
sented us with one of his excellent "human 
interest” stories. “The Intelligence Gigantic” 
was good, but we can’t for the life of ns figure 
out how the Martians created matter out of 
thought. It really sounded like a fairy tale, be- 
ing too intangible even to grasp. 

In “Hibernation,” by Abnet J. (jclnla. Dr. 
Anderson is able to counteract the sudden 
drop in blood sugar content by administering 
sugar to himself. This is not true, for a sudden 
decided lowering of the blood sugar renders 
the individual too convulsive to be capable of 
any muscular coordination. 

We would like to get your opinion on two 
questions: First: What is considered the best 
science fiction story ever written? Second: 
Which is better, the “Skylark of Space” or 
the “Moon Pool’’? 

In the “Science Fiction Digest” it was stated 
that you were going to print a story called 


140 


AMAZING STORIES 


March, 1934 


"Gold.” Is this true? We are anxiously await- 
ing this story because the title of it sounds 
good. 

And in closing we state that unlike the pro- 
verbial Greeks, we ask you not to question the 
gifts of praise we bring for the July edition. 

Best wishes for the future of “our” magazine. 

William Brickmann, 

Julius Tralins, 

2327 W. North Avenue, 
Baltimore, Maryland. 

(The taking of sugar by the mouth to over- 
come a drop in the blood contents of sugar is 
the salvation and probably in some cases, the 
preservation of the life of diabetes patients. “The 
Skylark of Space” deals with interplanetary 
travel and without undue rashness, we may 
say that we doubt if it will ever be accom- 
plished, so to a degree it is what the children 
call a “fairy story.” “The Moon Pool,” which 
is terrestrial, is absolutely an imaginary story 
throwing cold facts to the wind and making a 
really beautiful picture of a sort of fairyland. 
Yet, Mr. Merritt has got a lot of human nature 
into the “Moon Pool,” and the writer was 
greatly impressed by the character of the Irish- 
man. You have already seen in the preceding 
issue the story “Gold.” We thank you for 
your expressions of good will and friendship 
for Amazing Stories. — Editor.) 


An Oldtime Reader Feels that A. S. Is Losing 
Its Hold Upon Him 

Editor, Amazing Stories: 

I note from recent copies of Amazing Stories 
in the “Discussion Column,” that quite a few 
readers send in requests for back numbers. 

I, myself, have sent in a letter for the same 
request, and have succeeded in buying the copies 
I needed. Having read them thoroughly, I am 
now ready to pass them on to other readers 
at one-half of what they cost me. My files con- 
sist of copies from 1926, 1927, 1928 and a com- 
plete file of 1932-33 copies. Practically all the 
Quarterlies are in my files and these I can let 
go too, at half or less what they cost me. 

If the readers also want other magazines of 
the scientific-mechanical kind, I have numer- 
ous copies of Everyday Science and Mechanics, 
Modern Mechanics, Flying Manuals, Manuals 
of Radio Telegraphy, etc., which they can buy 
very cheaply from me. 

If you can print this in your Discussions 
Columns soon, I will greatly appreciate it, 
and I know that other fellow readers will, too. 

This letter is not intended for back-slapping 
you, nor as a brick-bat, but, frankly. Amazing 
Stories does not appeal to me as much now as 
it did before. I don’t know the cause for 
this change, but it was so imperceptible, 
that it has just dawned on me that the 
magazine, once my favorite, seems to be waning 
in its qualities. The covers, inside drawings, 
and some, but not all, of the stories are dis- 
tinctly distasteful to me. It used to fascinate 


me, but now I read it just for the heck of it. 
This fascination accounts for my files, some of 
my issues of which are over four years old. I 
used to throw away the magazine and save 
the cover, the result is that I have over 120 
covers of Amazing Stories and various others. 

Right now, if the magazine suits others, it 
suits me, and the fact that I still read it, and 
still save my copies shows that I still have 
faith in “our” magazine for bigger and better 
issues. 

Hoping to see this letter in print soon, so 
others can get a taste of the magazine, “as it 
was,” and giving you my wishes for a long ilfe, 
I remain, 

Wm. G. Dukstein, 

2486 W. 40th, 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

(We are sure your letter will be appreciated 
by some of our readers who are anxious to fill 
up their files. It might be illuminating for you 
to look at the first isues of Amazing Stories 
and see how poor they were compared to what 
we are giving now. It may be said that it 
started as a re-print magazine and the quality 
of its matter as it now appears, we think, can 
be testified to by the names of the authors. It 
would be hard to get together a staff of writers 
equal to those who favor- us with their work, 
of writers in the line of science fiction. We 
do not want to lose old time readers and we 
know within our inner consciousness that we 
are giving good matter in our pages. However, 
the last clause of your letter tells us that you 
are still our friend. — Editor.) 


A Letter from a Representative of the 
International Science Club 

Editor, Amazing Stories: 

I received the new size Amazing Stories 
with a little surprise, but the change doesn’t 
affect me in the least so I do not have any 
criticisms to make. I would rather have you 
adopt one style and maintain it because I do 
not like a constant change in size. 

One thing the new issue brings to my mind 
and that is reprints. The subject of reprints has 
been discussed so many times before that it is 
needless to go over the same thing agaiqt but 
there are a few points regarding this topic that 
I would like to bring out. Since we readers 
of Amazing Stories have read such stories 
as “The Diamond Lens” between our covers 
once before, we do not care to have such stories 
taking up magazine space again. For this rea- 
son, I do not care to see a reprint of “Skylarks 
of Space.” Although the “Skylark” stories are 
very well liked by the readers, why reprint 
them when they can buy the original magazines 
in which these stories appeared ? I, myself, have 
two sets of the “Skylark of Space” which I 
shall sell to readers who want them. You can 
see from the thread of my arguments that I 
am against reprinting stories which have form- 
erly appeared in Amazing Stories. 


March, 1934 


AMAZING STORIES 


141 


Most of the readers want reprints, but of 
course if you give them the wrong kind, they 
are going to go back on them. Countless times 
I have witnessed letters appearing in “Discus- 
sions” in which the readers present their choice 
of reprints. There are several stories which 
appear in almost all of these lists and yet 
when we are given reprints, these stories are 
never among them. 

In all fairness to the editor, I ought to give 
reasons why he might not be able to secure 
these stories for us. I know that the maga- 
zine business is none to good, therefore the ex- 
penses must be watched carefully. Reprints such 
as I have named are copyrighted and in order 
to secure them for publication often costs more 
than the original stories. 

In reprinting stories like “Skylarks of Sjwce” 
the stories have already been purchased and 
are owned by the magazine, therefore it is 
cheaper to publish these stories. If by doing this, 
the magazine is put on a better financial basis, 
I, for one, am willing to sec you do it because 
I know that when the magazine industry re- 
turns to normal, we get the best it is possible 
to buy. I know we have in the past. I would 
rather have Amazing Stories with all reprints 
from earlier issues than no Amazing Stories. 
I hope the readers understand the really try- 
ing times the editors must be under in even 
being able to give us such a fine magazine 
every month. Therefore readers, instead of 
criticizing the new size and the inability Of 
the editor to do impossible things, just think 
of his job. 

The International Cosmos Science Club still 
welcomes inquiries concerning membership from 
readers who are interested. I. C. S. C. is doing 
its best to spread the doctrine of science and 
science fiction among the people. 

From one who appreciates Amazing Stories, 
Edward F. Gervais, 

512 South Pennsylvania Ave., 
Lansing, Michigan. 

(What you say about reprints from our 
former issues would be perfectly true except 
that these issues are extremely hard to get, or 
at least from our correspondence, it would ap- 
pear that our readers have difificulty in procur- 
ing them. Although when the Amazing Stories 
began, it was distinctively a reprint magazine, 
it has lost that character at last but we occa- 
sionally give a classic, such as ‘The Diamcmd 
I^s” or some of Poe’s or perhaps O. Henry’s 
stories which we may be sure that many of 
our readers have not read. We hope you will 
keep on appreciating us as expressed in the 
closing sentence of your letter. — Editor.) 


A Letter About Dreamt 
Editor , Amazing Stories: 

I don’t suppose that it’s your fault that the 
size of the magazine has changed so I won’t 
bawl you out— just the magazine. Perhaps you’ll 
get back to normal after awhile. One can see 


that most of the stories are better but most 
lack that old, mysterious air. Do you notice 
it? Maybe it’s just the way some old things 
(not ideas, thank goodness !) make one feel. 
Did you ever notice how well you like cer- 
tain old tunes, you haven’t heard for a while, 
not too old, not too new, mostly popular and 
semi-classical songs? Can you explain this? 

One thing everybody has left out. The paper 
the magazine is printed on has a pleasing odor, 
what? I have smelled it so much, an Amazing 
magazine would not be an Amazing magazine 
without it. It is so closely associated, see? 
Never thought of it before? 

“Omega, the Man” was up to, if not over the 
standard, of most science-fiction stories. And 
by the way, why not raise the price? You’ve 
joined the N. R. A., I think we’re rich enough, 
and perhaps you could get better stuff for your 
ardent admirers, what? 

We think you’ve got almost enough science 
and anyway you’ve stirred up the wish of flying 
through space, in several friends of mine. It 
might have been there already but these stories 
unearthed it. 

Several stories have hinted of others and 
for the insulted, perhaps, I have a word of 
consolation. Did the critics ever hear that great 
minds run in the same line? Edison was not 
the only man working independently upon the 
incandescent light. Fulton was not the only 
steamboat builder ; Rumsey was one, etc. .^nd 
the men that invented Non-Euclidean Geometry 
were working independelitly in other countries. 
And then there’s the subconscious mind. It may 
remember what the conscious one may not. (I 
use subconscious in the same way scientists use 
ether in pertaining to what radio waves, meteors, 
etc., travel through.) Someone else’s writing may 
creep up and the person thinks it is his own. 
This has been true in many cases. My own, 
and several poets I have read. And there's 
nothing new under the sun ! ! Sez me 1 ! And 
these wise old sages of long ago before they 
began giving them the razzberries. 

By the way, slang is expressive, isn’t it? But 
not wishing to start (?) an argument I’ll only 
say, "Some of the pest people do it.” 

I read recently about some strange dreams 
of the human race(?). I have had strange 
dreams and this is only one of them. I dreamed 
that I was lost in a certain part of this state, 
a part that I had never seen before, and yet 
it seemed familiar. I dreamed that several 
year» ago and did not think of it again until 
this year when I came upon that very place I 
Yes! This experience I have had many times 
and the strangest is this: I dreamed I was in 
a prehistoric forest (rather like that amber 
beetle story, what?) and something strange 
and unknown was chasing me. It was very 
close to me when I began to near civiliza- 
tion, but I began to have a hard time running 
(not uncommon in dreams) and then — , I awoke. 
Disillusioning? 


; 

) 


142 


AMAZING STORIES 


March, 1934 


Two or three weeks later I went to “King 
Kong,” that weird masterpiece, and there I 
saw the very forest that I had been in in my 
dreams, but the hero of the story took my 
part. He neared civilization as you know, and 
got through the gates. O gee! Maybe you 
didn’t see “King Kong.” But get somebody 
that did, and then would you please try to 
explain my dream? 

K. Armstrong, 

814 College Ave., 
Morgantown, 
West Virginia. 

(There is no advantage in being puzzled 
about things that we encounter and experience 
in our lives in the line of subconsciousness. 
Dreams are a profound mystery. There 
are many dreams which never have any mean- 
ing so those, which seem to lead somewhere, 
should be treated as absolute coincidences. Yet 
there is a limitation to this for they are the 
production of thought and thought in he sub- 
conscious world of dreams may well sometimes 
be correct. You had better treat anything like 
dreams’ fulfillment as a coincidence for un- 
doubtedly that is all it is. It is absurd to say 
that they have any importance. — Editor.) 


A Tribute to Mr. Kostkot 

Editor, Amazing Stories : 

In your August-September issue I read with 
particular enjoyment “The Meteor-Man of Plaa” 
by your new author, Henry Kostkos. I thought 
this story written in a gripping style that 
mastered the difficult, imaginary problems most 
effectively. 

It seems to me you have made a real dis- 
covery in Mr. Kostkos, and I look forward 
to the opportunity to enjoy him again in future 
issues. 

Herbert W. Foster, 

31 Plymouth Road, 
Rockville Centre, N. Y. 

(We are hoping for more of Mr. Kostkos’ 
work and we really feel that we have made, 
as you put it, a real discovery in this writer. 
You will soon see more of his work. — Editor.) 


Jack Winks and Henry Kostkos Highly 
Commended 

Editor, Amazing Stories : 

I have been a constant reader of Amazing 
Stories ever since its beginning and I am sure 
that I am qualified to state that your combined 
August-S^tember number ranks with the 
finest Issues you have ever put out. 

It contained a remarkably diverse and en- 
tertaining bunch of stories, ranging through 
interplanetary, time-traveling and other types 
of science fiction. 

Even though some of the stories were by new- 
comers to Amazing Stories, they compared 
very favorably with the work of writers well 
established in the field of Science Fiction. 


Great promise was shown by both writers. 

Herbert Smith, 

2791 Grand Concourse, 
Bronx, N. Y. C. 

(There is no doubt that Amazing Stories 
is not only discovering good authors, but is 
holding them. The Questionnaire, which we 
publish, tells the story of the science contained 
in the magazine to this extent, yet it covers 
only a part of what is to be found in is pages. 
So you will see that after all our authors do 
use science in their narrations. — Editor.) 


Baron Munchausen’s Jump Through the Moon 

Editor, Amazing Stories: 

I have just finished reading the January issue 
of Amazing Stories and I thought they were 
all good except Mr. Skidmore’s story, “Adven- 
tures of Posi and Nega,” which repeated too 
much over his story in an earlier issue. I 
think Edward E. Smith’s “Triplanetary,” was 
the best in this issue by far. From what I 
think this will equal — if not surpass, all of his 
earlier stories. In the November issue I liked 
the story, “The Beetle in the Amber,” THE 
BEST. The one I did not like was “When 
the Universe Shrank.” 

In your January Editorial you mentioned 
Baron Munchausen jumping through the earth ; 
if I am not mistaken, he jumped through the 
moon — not the earth. 

This is the first letter I’ve sent to your 
magazine although I’ve read it as far back as 
I can remember, even thou^ I am only six- 
teen. Am sorry this is such a short letter but 
will try to do better next time. 

John H. Farrer, 

St. Elmo Hotel, 
diautauqua, N. Y. 

(The only comfort we have about Baron 
Munchausen is that he never jumped through 
either earth or moon. The author’s description 
of what happened to him when he jumped 
elicited considerable discussion and denial of 
the accuracy from the scientific standpoint. Your 
note on the “Beetle in the Amber” follows 
out the Eiditor’s idea, yet we have another 
correspondent who dislikes it. — Editor.) 


OPPORTUNITY AD-LETS 

Rate— 8c a word* name and address included. 
Minifflum — 10 words. Cash should accompany 
all advertisements. 


CORRESPONDENCE COURSES 

USED corres^ndence courses and educational books 

sold or rented. Inexpensive, Money-back agreement. 
Catalc« listing 3,000 bargains — FREE (Courses 
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MAGIC. ETC. 

BOOKS, Magic, Herbs, Novelties, Necessities. 133- 
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SCIENCE FICTION 

r- I- - \ 

BACK NUMBER Science Fiction., magazines. Write 
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143 


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mention NewsgiAND Ficttion Unit when answering advertisementT" 



144 








WHAT EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW 

Sv/t «f PcrfacI Malint , H«w !•' AtIrMt m4 H«U 
Wnat lo Allow ■ -Low Moo 

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lollwotc Ponloloo HviIom Cmntlolc of Hopwy 
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tions and grope in darkness no loogen 

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Th« $«KW«I Embroc* How io Rotolii VMhy 

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lost love a . • scandal • e e divorce • • . oca 
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5 76 DAfilNO 

106 VIVID 
PICTURES 


PAGES 


A FAMOUS lUDGI 
SAYS THAT MOST 
DIVORCES ARE CAUSED 
•Y SEX lONORANCEl 
Nornat. sexv»ait«d 
youDS people are torn 
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^ TVTi 


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Just write down your name and address plainly ou 
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/u 


Chari en 
Atlas As 
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Toda7« 



Gamble a Stamp — To Prove 
I Can Make YOU a New Man ! 


Gamble a stamp today by mailing the coupon for a free/ 
copy of my l)Ook. “Everlaving Health and Strength.” Jh 
tells you all about my special Dynamic-Tension method, anc 
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CHARLES ATLAS, Dept. 9-C 

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Mn. Sam Dowty of 
San Angelo. Texas, 
sold B. Max Mehl 
one-half dollar for. 
$400.00; 


She Got ^400^-* 

for a Half Dollar 


Amazing Profits 

FOR THOSE WHO KNOW 

OLD MONEY! 


I PAID $200.00 

to J. D. Martin, of Virginia, 
for Just One Copper Cent 

"Please accept my thanks for your cheek for $200.00' 

Jn payment for the copper cent 1 sent you. 1 appre-' 
ctate the Interest you imvo Kiven thlit transaction. 

It's a Trieasuru to tlo Imslhess with a firm that hanUles 
matters ub yoif do. . I vvIhU to assure you it will be a 
pleasure to' me lo tell all my friends of your wonderful 
, olff^r for old coins.'’ Julian D. Martin, Va. 

Th^. is. but one of the many similar letters are con- 
stantly receiving. Post yourself! It pays! We paid, 
Mr. Manning, New York, $2,500.CJ for a single silver 
dollar. Mr.s. G. F. .Adams, Ohio, received- $740,00 dor 
sOnit bid coins. We paid W. F. Wilharm. of Pennsyl- 
vania, $13,500.00 for his r.are coins. I paid J. T. Ne- 
ville. of North Dakota, $20n*.00 for a $10 Fill he picked 
up in circulation! Mr! Mehl paid $1,000.00 "to Mr. J- E. 
Brffwhlce, of Heanlmont, Ga., for one old coin. Mr. 
Bfownlee. irfhis letter to Mr. Meh'l, says: ‘'Your letter 
received ivith the check fox $1,00(;.00 enclosed. I like 
to deal ‘zvith sitch men as you and hope you continue 
buying cenhs for a long time."' In the last -Thirty years 
we have paid hundreds of- othets handsome premiums 
for bid bHls and coins. 

All Kinds of 01<1 Coins* Medals* 

Bills and Stamps Wanted 

$1.00 to $1,000 paid for certain old cents. t*lckels. di^es. 
fiuarters. etc. lUsht now w© will pay |50.0Q'for 1913 Liberty 
Head nlekels (nof buffalo), $100.00 for 1894 dimes; ( S 
Mint). $8.00 for J8S3 ouartera (no arrows). leOb 

(luarters (no motto)T $200.00 each for 1884 and iSSo Silver 
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Big Cash Premiums for Hundreds 
of Coins Now Circulating 

Tliere are literally thousands of old coins and bills that 
<ve want at once and for which we will pay hig cash 
prcmlnmH, Many of these coins are now passing from 
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ahlo coin may rome^inlo your possession. Watch your 
change. Know what to Icx^ for. 


NUMISMATIC CO. of TEXAS 


A n m' KJi -S.I 


Up to S80 
for certain 
copper cpnti 


sso 


Up 


for this Nickel 


4|eit 


pto$2 












FILL OUT AND MAIL NOWI 

.W R 

NUMISMATIC COMPANY OF TEXAS 


404 Mehl Building, Fort Worth, Texas. 


Wf DOOUHnUtT 

Dear Mr. Mehl: Please send me your Large 
Illu.strated Coin and Stamp Folder and further 
particulars, for which I enclose 4 vents. 


Addrefes 






There are single pennies that sell for $100.00. 
There are nickels worth many dollars— dimes, 
quarters, half dollars and dollars on which 
big cash premiums are paid. Each year a 
fortune is offered by collectors for rare coins 
and stamps- for their collection's. The prices 
paid are amazing. 

It Pay* to Post Blf 

Valuos of Olcf'Coins and Stampa 

Knowing about coins pays. Andrew 
Henry; of Idaho, was paid $900.00 for a 
half-dollar, r&ceived in change. A valuable 
old coin rhay,cdme into your possession or 
you may have one now and not know it. 

Post yourself. 

Hugo Pramiums for Old Stamps 

Some old stamps bring big premiums. An old 
10c stamp, found In an old basket, was recently 
sold for $10,000.00. There may be voluable 
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you to know how to recognize them. 

Let Me Send You My Big Illustrated 
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Use the Coupon Below! ^ 

Send the coupon below and 4 cents for 
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crr^DT %A//\b*ru YrYAC